Chapter 1:

The Arrival - I

The Devil's Tears


After the tragedy of Mabrar capital, the existing noblemen and lesser lords started bickering to be crowned as the next king. This bickering soon escalated into a wholescale war. The war had a lot of casualties, many soldiers and innocent citizen's lost their lives. Either side of the noble factions was ready to come to peaceful negotiations, as the thirst for power had blinded them.

Soon some of the soldiers started an uprising against the noble's mindless along with the common citizens. The mere uprising soon became a rebellion that grew in power day by day. The noble lords were getting cornered day by day with rebels assault.

But soon the noble lords started to lose their power on the country slowly.

One day, the rebellions attacked one of the noble lord's mansion and executed the lord in public.

After that incident, the other noble lord's feared to meet the same fate and lose their lands to the rebels.

When all doors seemed to be closed, the noble lord's finally sought aid from the other major nations instead.

And all this time, the major nations were waiting quietly for this very moment.

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The convoy from Sinnet noble house, one of the candidate's house for being the next king of Esther kingdom had reached the Rublor Kingdom. They requested aid from the Rublor kingdom.

The commander in chief had summoned, all the squadron leaders of the magic knight order in today's meeting for discussing that very same matter. Although, it was already 10 minutes past the scheduled meeting time and it has yet to be started.

At the same time in the corridor that leads to the meeting room, two military personnel were seen heading in the same direction.

"I had clearly instructed, that we should reach the meeting room, 15 minutes before the decided time. But I can't believe, that you overslept!" a voice jeered out loud in a feminine tone. The owner of the voice happened to be a petite looking girl in military uniforms who was walking in the corridor towards the board meeting room. She had an oval rimmed glasses and in her hand had an instruction pad.

"I also instructed that you should head to the bed early, for the very same reason! But in the end, we are late for the board meeting. We must hurry!" snickered the petite girl angrily.

"Calm down! Ellisa. It's little too, early for you to start making a ruckus, in this morning." answered a tall woman with an eyepatch walking in front of the petite girl.

"What do you mean, ma'am!" replied the petite girl, "It's already past 11'o clock, and its soon going to be afternoon. Also, you were the one who picked the time for this meeting, so you should be the last person to be late at this meeting."

"Yeah, yeah," she replied nonchalantly with a sigh.

"For god's sake, ma'am! When will you get serious on your duties? For crying out loud, you are the commander, representing the order of the knights. At least, you should take things seriously for a change. The new campaign at Esther kingdom would be a mammoth task." replied the petite girl.

"Yeah, I understand, it's crucial. We've been waiting for one of the noble lords to ask for our help, all this time. Finally, one of them reached out to us, but they sure made us wait for a long time, almost a year. But I wasn't twiddling my thumbs during that waiting period, you know that. So what if we are 5 minutes late, those stiff bastards can wait a little longer in that meeting room and get socialized with each other." answered the woman with a notorious smile.

This nonchalant, impolite woman was none other than Cecelia Nevarthalises, the appointed chief commander of the magic knight's order and the entirety of the imperial army.

The petite girl walking behind her, nagging her from behind was her secretary Ellisa Revees.

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A group of bullock carts carrying various types of cargo was heading towards the capital. These carts had come from far away cities and villages to sell their goods in the capital. The capital market was the biggest and attracted thousands of merchants and travelers alike every day.

This looked like typical cargo carts, although one of them was a little different than the other carts. This cart was a half-filled vegetable and crops and had more room. And in that very space, a boy in his late teens was sleeping with his arms stretched facing the roof. He was none other than Sebastian Heller from a small village named Kald near the northern border.

He was in a deep sleep but something was off. He was sweating profusely and his body was trembling. Sebastian was once again was having bad dreams early in the morning. But during all this time, he had this one creepy wide grin on his face. This grin of his was quite eerie as one might find it rather scary.

Just when a little boy, who was also traveling in the same cart approached sleeping, Sebastian. He saw the wide scary grin and stood beside him. This little boy then without any warning started attacking with an object in his hand with all his might.

"Big brother is once again started smiling." yelled out young boy and proceeds to continue to attack with the object in his hand.

Sebastian wakes up and notices that he was under attack by this mysterious young boy.

"Ivan stop, I am awake now," says Sebastian.

But this little boy, named Ivan doesn't stop the barrages of attack with his object in his hand.

Sebastian finally wakes up and sits upright,

"Ivan stop that! You'll ruin all the spinach."

The mysterious object Ivan was using to attack was a bunch of spinach that he picked from one of the baskets in the wagon.

"But this is my sword" argues Ivan.

This little boy with spinach-cum-sword in his hand was Ivan Heller. He was 4 years old and Sebastian's young brother. Ivan had admired his big brother and wanted to be a swordsman after seeing his big brother fight back in the village.

Sebastian wipes off the sweat from his forehead that he had accumulated from the nightmare. He snatches the spinach from Ivan and places back to the basket,

"Try to behave, Ivan. Otherwise, the driver will throw you overboard," said Sebastian to Ivan.

"It's alright. He can keep it." suddenly a voice replied when he overheard Sebastian. The voice came from the driver seat. It was the owner of the cart who replied that.

Sebastian let out a sigh and hands back the spinach back to Ivan,

"I had told Martha to keep an eye.. Where is Martha?" he asks as he looks around in a state of panic, "Martha?!"

Sebastian looks around and even peeps out of the cart to see if she fall overboard on the road.

"Hahaha! Don't worry, she's with me here." answered the driver.

Sebastian quickly goes towards the driver seat and peeks his head out of the wagon.

There on the driver seat sat an old man along with a young girl.

"Martha, what are you doing there! Come back here," said Sebastian out furiously.

The young girl glanced at Sebastian,

"You're once again smiling, big brother."

Sebastian once again had a wide grin on his face that appeared because of his worrisome nature. He took deep breathes and finally he dropped that smile.

"Get back here, Martha. It's dangerous there." said worried Sebastian.

The young girl that Sebastian was referring to was Martha Heller. She's 10 years old and she's Sebastian's younger Ivan Heller's big sister.

"It's alright." said the driver, "She's been a good girl. It's been about half an hour and she managed to sit here alongside me without any trouble." replied the driver.

Sebastian had an alarmed look,

"I was passed out for that long? Dang, it."

"You deserve some rest after all. The capital's just around the corner, so it was a good thing after all." said the driver.

Sebastian quickly goes to the back of the wagon and stuck his head out of the wagon to sneak a peek.

"Is that the capital…" said Sebastian in awe.

Ana Fowl
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