Zimowit and Gran continued drinking till the night sky was covered by shining stars. That was the time when almost the whole table was covered with empty bottles and the time when Gran’s wife came to get him as it was getting late. Zimowit went straight to his bed. Before he could even fall asleep there was a knocking on his door. 

Once he opened the door there were two knights and Lord Donkiel standing between them. Without a word, the knights entered the room and searched for something in the chests and shelves of the room.

“What… Are you doing?!” Shouted Zimowit trying to stay on his feet.

“As you suspected, Lord Donkiel.” One of the knights said and both of them stopped going through Zimowit’s stuff. “We’ve found the thief.” The knight showed a metal box with engraved lines and three crystals where one of them was in color of light blue while the other two the black.

“Zimowit. For stealing an artifact and trying to use it against our nation you’re being arrested and your house is revoked from the royal throne.” Said Lord Donkiel as the knight put handcuffs on the drunk man.

“What? This is a misunderstanding. Stop it! Free me right now! This is an order!” Zimowit tried to resist but the other knight knocked him out. 

***

Right after the duel against Richt, Klain went to take off his armor and join his father at the feast. A knight entered his room without knocking. Klain wanted to kick him out but he stopped once he saw the man bleeding from his right hand.

“Lord Klain… I have a message for you…” The man said between heavy breaths.

“What happened? Why are you bleeding?” Klain stood up, concerned by the knight’s wound.

“Your family… Mother, son, and sister were taken hostage…”

“They were… WHAT?! Did you inform my father?!” Klain stopped taking his armor off and even considered equipping it once again.

“They instructed to only inform you… If anyone else will show up… They… They will…” The knight tried to say that one specific word but he couldn’t bring himself to say that in this situation.

“Is there anything else they told you?”

“They want you to meet them alone without a horse and armor by the forest in the south.”

“No ransome?” Asked Kalin, figuring out the intentions of the kidnappers. 

“No. They want only you…”

“Political kidnaping… I guess they want me to disappear for the time of the tournament… Okay. I’m going.” Klain took the rest of his armor and only took his sword.

Walking through the green forest, Klain found his family carriage and ten people standing in front of it. They had some cheap armor on them. Six with swords, two with spears, and two with bows. The archers had their bows drawn the very moment Klain walked out of the bushes.

“I’m here… Now. What do you want?” Klain was keeping his hand on the sword’s hilt just in case they attacked him out of the blue.

“You know exactly what we want.” Said the eleventh man who was hiding behind the carriage. His armor was better than his companions but it was definitely used in battles as it had scratches and dents all around. The scar on his mouth was proof that he was experienced in battle. He had more scars hidden under the bandana wrapped on his head.

“You want to keep me out of the duel so Alk won't rule.” Klain said proudly to show that he figured out their plan.

“That’s right. You’re a smart boy. So why don’t you surrender? And spare the bloodshed.” The man said, looking around at his underlings.

“Spare the bloodshed? You know that’s impossible. Even though I confirmed my suspicions you won’t let me go.”

“What did you confirm by coming here?” Asked the bandits' leader.

“My family isn’t in that carriage.” Klain pointed at the carriage with a smirk on his face.

“Did you check inside?” The bandit knocked on the carriage’s door.

“Didn’t have to. This is indeed our royal carriage but we use it only to travel in the city. We have different ones to travel to our land. You wouldn’t recognize it because it’s not an expensive one. My father is a humble person just so you know…” Klain took out his sword and aimed it at the leader to mock him.

“Have it your way. Get him!” The leader commanded with his finger pointing at Klain and the archers fired the arrows at him.

The prince jumped to the side to avoid the arrows. Before he could even make a step forward the spearmen were already in front of him. He cut one tip of the spear off and grabbed the other spear with his armpit. He slightly turned to the side and smashed the spearmen into each other. 

Before the swordsmen followed the attack, archers drew their bows for another shot. Klain picked up the spear with a broken tip and threw it at one of the archers. The man didn’t have time to react and was hit in the shoulder. While falling to the ground he broke his bow.

The other archer hesitated for a moment once he saw his ally fall to the ground. Seeing as Klain was picking the other spear that had the sharp tip, he fled behind the swordsmen.

The swordsmen, not knowing how to position, grouped into two groups of three. They tried to attack Klain from both sides. Before they could even overwhelm him with numbers he turned to the group to his left. With one strike he hit all three of them. They had large wounds but no blood was coming out of them. Klain imbued his sword with magic and froze their blood before it even came out. The second group stopped and only observed the prince as he effortlessly took out six men.

“And here I thought only ten men would be enough. I tried to save some money but I see that was a mistake… You’re stronger than I imagined Prince Klain.” The leader approached the remaining warriors.  “Looks like I have to step in.” The man took out a cleaver as long as a sword.

“Interesting choice of weapon. Mind telling me your name?” Klain asked as he closely inspected his opponent.

“I’m Tarmyr. Some call me The Scared Mercenary.”

“Man with a renown. I’m actually honored that you’re the one who’s after me. I’ve heard some things about you. Loyal for the right amount of money. Not a good leader but a great warrior.”

“Oh my. I should be the honored one since a prince of a royal family heard things about me.”

“Enough talking. I’d like to test your abilities…” Klain prepared his posture for a duel against the leader.

“Just the way I like it.” The man answered by taking a stand for a duel.

Tarmyr raised his cleaver and struck Klain with it. The prince wanted to block the attack but it was too powerful and he had to parry it. The mercenary used that chance and kicked him in the stomach.

“That’s your royal swordsmanship. Finesse, technique, and a bit of magic.” Explained Tarmyr as he shattered the ice on his foot. “What you lack is strength like mine. But I’m not going to lie. I’m jealous of that magic of yours.”

“You’re flattering me after landing a solid hit on me…” Klain grabbed his stomach as it was still hurting. “Good thing I protected myself with a layer of ice… Otherwise, it would’ve hurt much worse. His strength can only be compared to a beast.” Klain thought as he replayed the first encounter in his mind.

Tarmyr walked toward Klain with his cleaver dragged on the ground. Klain didn’t want to get hit by him so this time he tried to attack first and overwhelm the opponent with his speed. To Klain’s surprise, Tarmyr was prepared and blocked his attacks with cleaver’s side. What Tarmyr forgot was his opponent's type of magic. His whole cleaver was covered with ice that was attached to the ground underneath the weapon. At that moment Klain had a chance to heavily wound Tarmyr.

He was aiming for his shoulder so Tarmyr would have a hard time swinging his weapon. The mercenary broke the ice but couldn’t fend himself in time. The sudden breaking of ice made Klain flinch and his sword went in a different direction. Tarmyr was hit in the eye with a freezing blade. 

While screaming out of pain, Tarmyr punched Klain and made him fly into the tree. He was confused at first because he didn’t feel much pain but he couldn’t see anything with his left eye. He looked at the prince who was trying to recover from the punch.

“Looks like I’m no match for that brat. The instructions were to not kill him… Agh… I have to use it.” Tarmyr took out a metal box with engraved lines and three dark crystals. 

He tapped one of the crystals and threw it toward Klain. As he stood up he saw a small box land in front of him. The engraved lines began to shine with a blue light. A bright light came out of the box, blinding everyone who was looking. The moment they were able to see, by the tree there was only a box with two dark crystals and one in the light blue color.

“Job done. What a sad fate to be forgotten that way. Whoever you were...” Tarmyr picked up the box and left all the injured men in the forest.

The remaining bandits were confused. They were scared of something. They were injured in a fight with someone. This someone felt like a ghost that they can’t seem to remember.