Mag-log inArden is walking at the forest and when he saw many dangerous animals, he decided to create a spear from a long wood.
When he knew the night is coming, he made a small shelter for himself.
In the morning, he is woken up by the sound of the bird that sound very beautiful. Almost like they are singing.
Continuing the journey to find a nearby settlement, Arden start following the river stream.
After walking for an hour or so, he saw a vast land of green grass and saw a village in the middle of it. He then goes to that village and then entered the village, the villagers around are not so friendly when he entered the village, giving an eyesight like noble did to peasant.
He goes straight to the head villager's house, when the head villager see Arden, he said something.
"Sorry, we don't have any spare food here"
"Wait, I have some question to ask"
"What is it?"
"Where am I at?"
"You are at the village of Ast, the province of Northim"
"Okay sir thank you"
"If you don't have any other question, you better go. This village is dangerous, there is many mistress of local noble here and the thought of their self as a powerful noble." he planned to go back to Ailreh as fast as possible but thought of his self to visit the duke since Arden know the three dukes well and has become one of their friend, so he continues walking to the north.
Only with his clothes alone, it's very cold for him, but he still continues to the north. Without noticing, the land already covered by snow.
Almost given up on going north and wanted to turn back... When he saw a big city in the distance, so he continued and reached the city gate.
He was going to the keep when a guard told him.
"No beggars are allowed to enter the duke's keep"
"Is the duke in the keep?"
"I can't tell you" Arden can't enter the keep, he didn't even know where the duke is.
He is thinking of a way to enter the keep and decided to the centre of the city, and looked to the upper part of the city where all the noble and rich people lived.
Then someone patted his back, he turns back to see an old man. Not in the best clothes but still look fine, probably a declining noble.
"Kid, would you like to go to that part of the city?"
"Yes"
"Follow me then, I'll take you to my house" Arden followed him to his house, it's not the biggest mansion, can't even be considered as a mansion, maybe a manor. A small one, but its at a good condition.
They entered the house and something caught his eye, a beautiful girl on the staircase. So the old man called the girl's name.
"Valen, where are you?"
"I'm here dad"
"Come meet this man I met on the street" and then turn to Arden.
"I'm gonna ask my wife to make you something to eat, go talk to my daughter at the livingroom," so Arden walked to the livingroom, and the girl ask.
"Who are you?"
"I'm Arden, your name is Valen right?"
"Indeed, my father's name is Sean, by the way, where did you came from"
"I'm from...." when a loud sound came and a muscular guy broke the manor door, with a person beside him.
"This property is taken by my lord Ambrosious, since you can't pay your debt." the muscular man started flipping things and destroying item in the manor, Valen sat scared at the couch.
Seeing this thing, Arden run towards the man, tackled him and knocked him out. The other person ran and said.
"Just wait, I'll take my person and destroy this house" Arden then turned to Valen and said
"Can you take me to the duke?"
"I guess so" so they go to the duke residence, it's a huge mansion. When they are about to enter, a guard stopped him.
"You can't enter"
"Why?"
"The duke can't be disturbed by your presence"
"Will you give my message to him?"
"I guess so"
"Okay, here it is"
...
"Hello sir Rakham, perhaps you didn't remember me, I'm Arden. The one you knighted at the fortress of Castro" that's it"
"Okay" after standing for 5 minutes, the guard came back and let Arden enter the mansion.
Entering the mansion, he is greeted by the duke at the living room.
"Sit down, sir Arden. Long time no see, what brings you to my residence and why are you wearing such an ugly clothes?"
"Hello sir Rakham, I thought it would be good if I visit you, the thing that made me look like this is because when I was fishing at the river, and then I tripped and was carried away by the river"
"Hmm, why wouldn't you stayed here for a night?"
"Perhaps I can do that, but first, do you know a nobleman called Ambrosious?"
"Yes, I know him, he was one of the weaker noble here. Did he do something to you?"
"No, but to this girl family"
"Hmm, he is famous to do something like that, bring this girl's parents to me" so they did that and go back to the old man house, and then go back to the duke's mansion. The parents told everything to the duke and the duke gone mad.
Suddenly a guard shows up and said there is a big black smoke coming from Sean's manor. They ran there to check on the manor. Indeed, it was on fire, the duke is really mad right now and said.
"Let's take care of this Ambrosious tomorrow, I'm really tired right now" then the duke signal to a maid to prepare 3 rooms. Sean's family is crying right now, but grateful when the duke said he is going to take care of it.
Arden took a bath to clean his self and then goes to the bed and lie down. Then thought about all the things he has done on this day. And then sleep…
He got to his office and sat down at his seat behind the desk while flipping through pages and pages of people assigned by his significant other to work at the castle.With the task to find a head butler or maid, suitable and trustworthy while being humble and not selfish. With many candidates to choose, he needed to make a hard decision.He would need to find a person liked by the others but also doing great at their work. Not some random person who looked the most suitable.But then, it would be hard to do so with only basic information about the people already working in the castle in the document which now at his hand and have his attention.'There would be 2 ways of getting information, either I interview them or I gather the information secretly' he thought to himself before thinking about it again.'Screw it, might as well do both' he thinks about it before realizing he hasn't solved the problems he needs to solve at the first place.
The crew directed the ship to the nearest settlement, the village of Albe that is located by the river. The ship moves past others that made them curious and followed it.More people gather once they saw a ship while it was put into a stop by the crew on board of it. Their curiosity written on their face as they saw a wooden board that would act as a stare being put.Arden slowly and safely walked down the wooden board as the people gathering start cheering. Their lord has returned back to them and ready to rule the lands once more.The crowd getting bigger and bigger as the people that were there to arrive tell the information to others and came back with more people to watch and cheers.The village leader came to the scene hurried and worried about people unwanted coming to his village. But once he saw Arden, he bows and with respectfully said."Sir, what are you doing here?" to which Arden responded with."Just came back from a lengthy jo
They got ambushed and captured by the unknown enemies. They taking Arden's sister is enough to make him surrender.Now, at the ship. They surrendered and dropped their weapons. The sound of metal hitting the wooden deck is enough to make the enemies drop their guard.But they do not wish to take casualties, so they didn't do a surprise attack or some short. They just pressed their upper jaw and under jaw together while seeing what would happen to them.They stare and stare while 5 of the enemies goes to the nearest tree and search for something…Confused, seeing them searching for something. Once the 5 of the enemies found it, vine. Nonpoisonous one can be seen from the fact they touch it with their bare hand.The vine is very long, almost as long as the length of the ship itself, but knowing it won't be enough. They gather more.After they had done the gathering, they approached them and start to tie the vines. Arden and the others t
In the 8th days, any seconds from now. They would have seen the land started from a small at the far distance to the big lands.They waited and waited; the crew doing their job and the passenger waited patiently with big smiles at their face. They are getting impatient now.1 hour came by, still nothing as far as their eyes could see. But… at the very distance, they could see some lands.Slowly and slowly becoming gigantic, there is a port town there. With many ships at the dock doing nothing.Closer and closer and the town became recognizable, the town he met Ansu that brought him across the sea. The Port Town of Gilam.But their destination is not there, their destination is his land. Bringing the ship with them to his land using a river that would bring them back.They would continue, but not without food to eat. The only solutions are to stop by and buy some foods in the town.So… they decided to stop at the Port Tow
"You are alive!!! I thought you were dead" He cried a little bit and clean it with his golden robe.His wife hearing just a slight sob rushed to the room and opened the door with force, she began scolding whoever made her husband cried.Even though they fought commonly, they still loved each other. Once she realized the person who made her husband cried, she apologized and excuse their self and left the room.They waited for them to return and the door began opening itself. There, stand a maid with teapot and glass on a wooden tray.She began serving it to them and they accepted with gratitude on their face before she was done and asked."My lord, do you need anything else?" They thought and responded Arden responded with."When will the shogun return?" The maid just stood in front of them and made a smile before leaving the room.Not long after, like 15 minutes or so, Mitsuo returned with his wife and entered the room. His face was c
He walked and walked, through the small path that guides him through the graveyard. To the guard post he goes.He reached the guard post and saw a guard there; he is sleeping comfortably on his simple platform elevated from the floor and got woken up by a person calling him."Hey, hey, wake up," The guard opened his eye and saw a man in the dead's clothing with dirt and all sort of things covering his body.Not a mere seconds later, the guard blacked out 5 seconds later after making a face of seeing a person risen from the dead.After the guard blacked out, he sighed and turns his attention to the gate to open it by any mean.The gate is locked…Leaving him no choice but to search for the key.'Where would the key be?' Then he saw the light reflected by the silver things on the guard hip.'Of course, he is keeping it with him, how dumb am I?' He started making an effort to grab it but the guard is too far from the window