Local

After 3 longs hour of walking through the tunnel that is made of wood with only the light from the torch that had been changed multiple times, the finally got out.

Breathing the fresh air and looking at the beautiful scenery, freshening their self a having some rest. But soon, they noticed the glimpse of light at the distance.

The sound of horse tramping the ground as they galloped at the ground and the clinging of metal is becoming louder and louder.

Being reflected by the metal, as that reflected light got closer and brighter, they noticed people riding horses approaching them.

With the light armour and swords at their hip...

'Bandits?' Arden thought to himself for a second.

They stopped their horses in front of Arden's party, with some dust flying to Arden. Some even got on his eye, fortunately, it didn't harm his pregnant wife.

"Who are you!!" Didn't bother getting off his horse, one of them shouted with a loud voice that is a little bit unnecessary.

"I'm Baron of Aselwey and this is my wife and my page!" He responded with a loud voice while pointing at Valen and Maverick.

The person that shouted before looked at Arden to examine him. After a good 3 seconds, he spitted to the ground and raise one of his eyebrows.

"If you are a Baron, I'm the King" He said this and then laugh, the others soon start laughing too.

Then he turned back and told his men to capture them. Arden could resist but it's too risky with his wife near him so he didn't resist.

They are tied and their thing is confiscated, Their money is taken from his party that would eventually be shared amongst those people.

Soon, they are on their way to the nearest castle that is located in the middle of the town of Edklin. On the way there, they got many disgusted looks that made them felt they did something bad.

Once they reached the castle, they heard many weak noble whispering to each other, some castle guards even said loudly.

"You got new criminals?" One of the guards said this to the man that captured Arden's party. This made Arden confused and thought of every possible way to escape this situation.

"Yea, make sure they didn't escape" As he hands the castle guard 3 people that "did something bad".

The castle guard then gave him a sack of money and then turned to Arden.

"Follow me you lowly piece of ****" He said this bluntly and then proceed to walk.

They walked for sometime around the place and then climb down some stairs too. Meaning they are going to a room underground, likely to be the dungeon of the castle.

They reached the room with and rusty old door covering it, with a rusty lock locking it. The guard tried opening it and it jammed several times before he successfully opened it

you could hear the sound of the door being opened since it's so rusty and old.

The room itself was dirty and dark too, barely any sunlight could get into this place. The smell is even worse, probably it's near the sewer.

There are some other people inside the room that looked like under and just left.

"Get in!!" The guard said with a loud voice and a serious face.

After they got inside, the guard proceeded to close the door and lock it with the presumably same rusty lock.

Arden, a pregnant lady and a young boy just looked to each other and then sat down at the cleanest place they could find.

After some time, Valen started sobbing and Arden tried comforting her. The young boy, Maverick starting feeling unwell and started to vomit at the corner.

This is when a person came up to him...

"Young man, they capture us and put us here because they thought we are criminals that tried to go to other kingdoms after doing something bad. but don't worry, sometime there would be a noble that came down here with the castle owner to buy us as a slave" The man said with his weak voice.

A few hours after that, Arden could hear there are some people coming to this dungeon. The lock is being unlocked with the sound of it jamming again it seems.

The door is opened and he could hear the sound of 2 people having a conversation, in front of them are 2 guards, the earlier one is there too.

"I heard there is a family of criminal that used the tunnel to escape after stealing many valuable things" One of the people saying this. Weirdly, the voice sounded very familiar to Arden. Maybe he met the person before?

"Indeed, they have many valuable things, but most of them came from a new baron, fortunately, we caught them." The other one responded, but Arden didn't feel any familiarity with this voice.

"How stupid are they, dare to steal the marriage present from 3 powerful people from this kingdom!!!" This person then turned his attention to the people at the dungeon before recognizing Arden.

"Si... si... sir, why are you here?" The person trembled and his voice quivered.

"What do you mean? This is the family of criminals we caught" With confusion, the unknown person said this and then turned to Arden and kicked him.

"Give your respect toward this honourable baron you lowly piece of ****" Still didn't realize to who he is talking to.

But then, he did the most unforgivable thin to Arden, he tried to kick Valen on her stomach. Fortunately Maverick took the kick for Valen.

Then he became angry because someone blocked him and changing his target to Maverick. The other people at the dungeon start going to their corner.

The person that came to him before did the opposite, he started defending Maverick and ended up getting kicked too.

"ARE YOU STUPID? YOU WANT US TO GET BEHEADED?" With a loud shout, the person Arden knew said to him.

That person expression changed from angry to confused and scared.

"You dare to kick my squire and tried to kill my unborn heir!!!" Arden said this angrily and took his hand and slamming him to the ground.

That person became unconscious in a mere second and the guard was helping him. Some charged Arden with their spear but quickly stopped by Goswind.

[Baron]Goswind is one of the nobles Arden led at the war against Bisvirb and the barbarians, now known as the Norse.

Goswind then proceeded to tell Arden and his party to follow him to a better room while calming Arden down on the way to it.

Fortunately, Arden is a calm minded person, he calmed himself down after a few hours. His other party member now is in good condition after cleaning themself.

With the nice and clean room they got, better at every aspect. Some flower scent that came from inside the room making them relaxed.

And to the things that are cleaned regularly, perfect for a nobility such as their self. Not the dirty and smelly dungeon that is made near the sewer.

Without even with Arden noticing it, the sun starts changing. They spent 6 hours on the dungeon and it's already dark now.

Everyone is tired after what happened this day and decided not to think about it anymore and proceeds to sleep in their comfortable bed.

The very next day, Arden woke up very late. At 11 in the morning, near noon. He proceeds to get ready to start his day and then is called to the keep of the castle.

Maverick has woken up earlier than him, such an energetic boy he is. So Arden decided to bring Maverick with him to the keep.

Teaching him to solve problems on his own in the future and also making him learn the etiquette is important.

At the keep, there are many people already there. To whom, a lot of them Arden knew. The room itself filled with tension, as many people would get what they deserved.

There is the one who tried to kick his other party member, There is the person that captured him, there are the castle guards that tried to charge him and insulted him.

Then, there is Goswind sitting on a seat, next to it is an empty seat. Goswind stood up and the guided Arden to sit at the seat he prepared while Maverick followed Arden and stood beside him.

"Today is the day we talk about what happened to Baron of Aselwey" Goswind announced to the whole keep.

"First, to the person who took care of the castle for me and tried to kill the unborn heir of the honourable knight. What do you want to do with him?" Goswind turned to Arden and asked the question.

"Evict him! Make sure I never saw him" Angrily he shouted while remembering what the things that person did.

"As you wish, now for the castle guards that tried bla bla bla" The castle guards ended up getting fired and then sent to the field as a slave.

For the person that captured Arden, he ended up getting sent to the field as a slave too.

Arden and his party got their thing back and then they left the keep. Leaving Arden, Goswind and Maverick alone.

"I don't know this is your land Goswind" Arden said this with a friendly face, the truth being told, Arden is quite surprised that Goswind owned this land.

"Thanks for whatever you did for me" Arden gave his gratitude to Goswind.

"It's not a problem" With a friendly smile, Goswind responded to Arden as he did nothing to help him.

"I see you don't have any slave there, maybe you would like some as a gift of our second encounter" Goswind said this with the intention to help Arden.

Arden himself didn't like slavery but he must accept the gift to show respect to the person giving him that gift.

"let's talk about that later, I would want some time for myself" Arden said to Goswind because he wanted to explore the castle and the small town surrounding it.