Wanted Heroes

When I reached the town square I saw my comrades waiting for me. We were running out of time and I couldn't explain to them what had happened. My main aim was to get them as far away from here as possible and out of sight. Babu saw me approaching and signalled to the others.

"There's our man," he said.

I was obviously agitated, my head was constantly turning left and right, looking for a way out. I quickly turned to my friends and whispered urgently.

"Quiet, it's not safe here. We need to get out of here as soon as possible."

Lezlie noticed my uneasiness and asked me what was going on.

"What's going on, Hiroshi?" she asked.

I would tell them everything later, but right now my only goal was to get to a safe place. "No time to explain," I said urgently. "Just follow me." I had a place in mind - an abandoned house at the end of the road in the alley that I had seen before. If we could make it there, I could explain our situation to my friends in safety.

Without questioning my words, they did exactly as I said and started to follow me in silence. We made our way through the alleys with slow, cautious steps. As we approached the abandoned house, I caught sight of a dozen soldiers advancing down the main street on our right.

Quickly, I ducked behind a wall and signalled for the others to wait. We held our breaths as the soldiers passed by. Once they were gone, I raised my hand again and signalled for everyone to move forward.

We finally reached the abandoned house and I led them to a break in the back wall that was covered with boards in an amateurish way. With one hand, I lifted the boards and whispered, "Come on in."

One by one, each of us slipped through the break in the wall and into the abandoned house, with Ryuu bringing up the rear. After making sure everyone was inside, I followed and carefully closed the board behind us.

We found ourselves in a dark basement. On the far left side of the room, directly opposite us, there was a small window that let in a faint light. It wasn't enough to fully illuminate the room, but it allowed us to see our surroundings.

The basement was rough and dusty - it was clear that it had been abandoned for a long time. As everyone settled down and realized we were safe for the moment, they turned to me with questions. Babu was the first to speak up, curious and agitated as always."What's going on" he asked.

I took a deep breath and began to explain. "According to the information I received," I said slowly, "we are wanted at a high level in the third kingdom. I don't know why, but we are the reason why the soldiers are here. They will continue to come after us, so we need to get out of here as soon as possible."

While the others were trying to process the information, Lezlie spoke up. "I don't understand why the king would do such a thing," she said, her voice laced with confusion.

Mila chimed in with her own thoughts. "Could it be that the third epic and the third king are working together?" she suggested.

I shook my head. "As I said, we don't know why we are wanted," I replied. "There could be another reason entirely. But right now, our priority is to get out of here and find a safe place to regroup and figure out our next move."

The prince joined the conversation, sharing what he knew. "I know my uncle, the third king," he said firmly. "He would never cooperate with the third epic. But I don't understand why he would make such an announcement."

"Then there must be another reason," I said.

The prince looked at me skeptically. Something about my words didn't ring true to him and he thought the whole situation was absurd. "Where did you get this news?" he asked.

"From an old friend," I replied. "I met her by chance in the square. She was the one who warned me about the soldiers and told me we needed to leave."

The prince, cleverer than he looked, took control of the conversation and began to piece together the information. He explained in detail how things worked in the kingdom.

"In a situation like this," he said, "in the great kingdoms, especially in the third kingdom, notices are posted in every town. But the big towns are always the first to see the new notices. And even before that, the king shows the notices directly to the paladins. It takes days for someone to travel from the nearest big town to here. So if your notice is new and your friend was able to warn you so quickly, then she must be a paladin."

Following the prince's logic, Mila spoke up with a realization. "But if the announcement is about us," she said slowly, "then that means a third saga could be on the way."

The prince turned to me with a thoughtful expression. "So Hiroshi must have gotten this information from either a knight or an elite soldier," he said.

The Prince had put me in a difficult situation. I wasn't afraid that my friends wouldn't believe me - I knew they trusted me, but it would be difficult for them to trust the person who gave me the information because he was an elite soldier. And if I lied and he was exposed, the consequences could be severe. So I told them the truth without hesitation.

"She is an elite soldier," I said firmly. "But she bought us time to escape. She helped us. I vouch for her."

Because of what he had seen in the past, the Prince did not trust elite soldiers or epics. Like everyone else here, he was worried and wary. He didn't know me very well, so it was understandable that he didn't trust me completely. He spoke harshly about my friend.

"Just because she helped you," the Prince said skeptically, "how do we know she's not lying to us? Elite soldiers have killed many people. She also works under the patronage of the saga. How much can we really trust her?"

"Listen to me, young man," I said firmly. "Maybe you don't understand yet, but we don't judge people by who they are. We judge them by their actions. That elite soldier is my friend, I would trust her with my life."

Ryuu intervened and pushed the prince away from me. For some reason the prince didn't fight back. In that moment my anger boiled over. The words spoken to Lena felt like a personal attack. Everyone looked at me as if they thought I had lost control. But I hadn't. I was reunited with a friend I hadn't seen for years.

I couldn't bear to stay there any longer. I took one last look around me without saying a word to disperse their thoughts and walked out without looking back.