Father’s office was… a bit bland, to say the least. It was a spacious room with a desk in the middle. Four wooden seats flanked the desk, and behind it was Khalad’s seat—nothing special. The man had his sword on the table next to him, within hand’s reach, and a stack of administrative papers in front of him.

  No sack could be seen on his person, nor any Bracelet adorned his wrists. It wasn’t that the man couldn’t afford to outfit himself with such things, but he had no Purpose, or as it’s more commonly called, Purposeless.

  To his right was a small library, housing various books, and to his left was a door that led to our family’s storage room; it was where we kept most of our valuables. Behind him was the same picture I had in my room, but this one was much bigger and mounted on the wall.

  The man held an inked feather in his hand as he scanned me from top to bottom.

  “You look weak,” Father said with a monotone voice, as if he were talking about the weather.

  “Thanks for your concern,” I said sarcastically. My father frowned a bit at that, and I quickly fixed my mistake.

  “I meant, I’ll try my best to recover to full health.”

  That seemed to appease him as he didn’t comment on my remark. “Not only recover, but I also want you to become better than before.”

  “Of course, father.”

  I hit my clothes thrice to dislodge any remaining sand on them from the training in the guards’ yard before taking a seat to Khalad’s right.

  “Anyways, I had been meaning to ask you about Kamala’s case. What was the lead you told me about?”

  Father gave me a long look before putting his pen down. He stood up and went to the storage room, opening it with the keys he had on himself.

  Click

  Should I follow him? I mean, it’s not like I haven’t entered before, but there's some delicate and expensive stuff there.

  I stood up, my curiosity winning over. But before I could reach the door, Khalad was out and locking it again.

  Better luck next time, I guess. Although I’m more interested in this…

  In front of my father lay a steel cube the size of a man’s head. A thin line could be seen in its centre, cutting it in half. I stood to take a better look. On its side were two protrusions that looked like… hinges?

  “What’s this exactly?” I asked, having not seen such an invention before.

  “We think it's an encrypted message relay system. Amidus found it buried under the merchant’s store. At that time, he opened it, and inside were twenty buttons that had different symbols on them. I won’t open it now, as we don’t have the expertise to work with it, nor do we know how it works,” Khalad said with a heavy tone.

  I blinked a few times, my mind connecting the dots. “So, it's an outsider job?”

  Sigh

  Father took off his reading glasses, closed his eyes, and rubbed the side of his nose.

  “It’s not that simple. Insider hands are working with the outsiders, that’s for sure. We haven’t been able to identify the traitors, though we have some suspects—Kamala’s clan and their elder, Ekhan. But…” Khalad seemed to hesitate at the last part, stroking his beard as he took a deep breath.

  “B-but what?” I asked, my voice trembling at the implications.

  Knowing a family wanted to kill me is different from an entire clan. This… this might lead to a civil war!

  “But we think we know who the outsiders are. The device they used, although we couldn’t decrypt the messages, was clearly a Hanshin invention,” Khalad said, releasing the deep breath he had held.

  My mind went blank for a moment, unable to comprehend the weight of what father had said.

  “Are you saying that the Hanshins want me dead, no. Are you saying they want us all dead and are working with an elder? This can’t be real! I mean, what if the device was bought by another side that wanted to frame them?” I asked with haste; my heart falling into a dark pit as my mind thought of what a bad relationship with the Hanshins implied.

  The author's narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

  My father shook his head, making my heart drop even lower. “It may be, but I don’t think so. As I told you a week ago, something is brewing under the table, and my hunch leads me to believe that this is connected to that.”

  ***

  I talked a bit more with my father. Apparently, he hadn’t told the elders what he had found under the shop, not wanting to alert the traitor before we could catch him. He also told me that Amidus was on a top-secret mission that might take weeks.

  The man had been sent with a few trusted aides to the human kingdoms as a delegate to our tribe; he was to inquire about the movements of the Hanshins without raising suspicion. But most importantly, he was to bring an expert with him to help us crack the messaging device.

  My training had been entrusted to Khumaini, which I outright refused. Instead, I told my father that I’d train with Warrior Somani from now on.

  As I exited the mansion and walked across the wooden bridge into the mailand, I couldn’t help but think about the Hanshins. Being the direct descendants of the Human race, the Hanshins looked a lot like us. The biggest difference was their build. They usually reached a meter in height, but unlike short humans, their functions and dimensions were normal; they actually were considered the most beautiful race, with very fair skin, a wide range of eye colours, and cute features just like kids.

  Another big difference and their most feared aspect was their intelligence; they had the smarts of the best humans, and even then, they were better. The guys were geniuses, creating planes that travelled the world in a week, cars that replaced donkeys and camels, and most importantly, Bracelets.

  Anyways, why people feared their brains wasn’t because it could only create; it also had the capacity to destroy. Thankfully, no major war had been initiated by the Hanshins in a decade, until…

  No way it's them. Father is mistaken; I mean, the guys are peaceful, right? I thought as I navigated through the heavily crowded streets, heading towards my favourite restaurant.

  Thankfully, the place wasn’t far away, being on the main road. As I stood before the establishment, I couldn’t help but sigh.

  Big days are ahead, but that doesn't mean I can’t have my breakfast!

  Like any Khahandarian house or building, the place wasn’t decorated at all from the outside, plain red bricks stacked atop each other—Baras, in general, hated to show off. But from the inside, it was way different.

  As I entered, I was assaulted with tantalising scents and boisterous sounds—the place was lively. Tens of wooden tables surrounded by different companies were centred around an intricate marble fountain. Every type of Bara was here, from the harsh southerners to the fish-smelling easterners. But what shocked me, if I could still be shocked, were the foreigners. Those were rare, and I could count up to ten tables filled with them.

  They all looked to be from the fallen Holy Empire—the current human kingdoms—with their lighter complextions, and bigger builds. Doubt started to creep into my heart. The humans from the mainland rarely visited, and when they did, they came in small numbers, not like this.

  Especially, not like this.

  These men, and rarely women, wore heavy plate armour and had different weapons on them—some even had sacks strapped to their sides, although, unlike the bladder ones of the Baras, theirs were made of steel. Their faces looked hardened, as if they had been through shit.

  Do they have something to do with the conspiracy?

  I scanned the group of foreigners, choosing to approach the trio that looked the youngest.

  I had chosen them for three reasons. First, they sat away from the main group of adventurers. Two, as the youngest, they were probably the easiest to get information out of. The final reason was that their equipment looked the worst, with leather armour and worn-out sword sheaths. Plus, looking at their wrists revealed that they had no Bracelets, though one of them had his wrists well covered, but no sack could be seen on him.

  They can be bought.

  As I got closer, the three men—boys? Noticed me. They looked kinda nervous and out of place surrounded by Baras.

  Although the one with the curly hair and a huge shield to his side looks to be shaking from… excitement?

  Of the remaining two, one had glasses, thin straight hair, and soft features. The second had spiky red hair and fierce blue eyes—his face looked a bit familiar.

  Let’s start with the curly guy, lest he explode from excitement.

  “Hey, I’m Yomon, son of Khalad and father of Khalad. I welcome you all to our humble oasis!” I offered my hand to the spiky man, who shook it with too much vigour without standing up—not standing up while greeting someone was considered impolite in my culture, but I didn’t mind.

  “I-I’m Banana!” The curly guy said with the heaviest accent I’ve ever heard.

  Now that’s something…

  I stood still for a second, not knowing what to say to… Banana.

  But from the way the other two guys were laughing—the spiky guy hitting the table while the other one holding his stomach—led me to believe that I’ve been set up.

  Well, what did you expect? These are adventurers who travelled for weeks; of course, they won’t be intimidated by me, even if they don’t look that much older than me.

  My pride was hurt a little, but I didn’t show it. Smiling at Banana, which got me a confused look, I extended my hand to the straight-haired guy.

  “Thanks for having us, Yomon. And don’t worry about my friend Banana, he doesn’t know how to speak the Baras’ tongue. Anyways, I’m Marsus Light, and the banana dude is Sipsus Smith. The red hair here is called Yakob Lavander,” Marsus said with a slight accent, greeting me while standing up.

  Oh, so that’s what it is. They set up their friend, ha. I like these guys; they seem funny.

  “Nice to meet you, Brother Marsus. I was wondering what’s up with his name. Thanks for the clarification.” I shook Masus’s hand before doing so with Yakob, who didn’t bother to say anything, only offering a small smile.

  “Can I have a seat?” Although I usually wasn’t this polite, I didn’t know their culture, and didn’t want to offend anyone.

  But they seem easygoing. Argh, I should’ve focused more when we got those culture lessons.

  “Of course. Please, don’t mind our manners, we’re not from here, as you can tell. And in the Farantina Kingdom, we’re… more brash, you can say,” Marsus said, staying up until I sat—another good point for him, if I cared about such things.

  He seems knowledgeable about some of our more detailed customs. But are they really brash, or is he just being nice?

  “No worries, and I ask of you the same. You said you’re from the Farantina Kingdom? What might’ve brought you all the way here? That’s a long distance. And don’t get me wrong, you’re welcome, but you understand that our lands don’t hold much riches, am I right?” I spoke in the most eloquent way I knew. Although these guys seemed fun and nice, I wasn’t going to drop my guard and act my usual self around them.

  They might be here to destroy my home, so I need to know their intentions.

  Of course, I didn’t expect them to be truthful. But you could find out many things from lies.

  Marsus scratched the side of his temple. “Have you been living under a rock?”

  “Ahh…” I did’t know what to say, surprised at how fast the tone of the conversation had shifted.

  “Mhm, excuse my language. What I meant to say is that the Adventurer’s Guild has been building a branch here for the last week; it's the talk of the town, tribe.”

  Adventurer’s Guild? Why would my father allow foreigners at such an important junction… wait a minute.

  “By any chance, do you know a Healer called Heler?”

  A wide smile appeared on Marsus’s face.

  “Sir Heler Ozman? Of course, he’s going to be the guild master of this branch. By any chance, have you seen him? He’s been fooling around and enjoying his time at the chieftain’s house all week, while his men over there slept in cramped rooms.”

  Fooling around? No respect for elders? No weird customs? Call me in!

  Even though I was starting to like the Farantanian culture more and more, I kept my face neutral. I was still not done.

  “Hmm, yeah, I’ve seen him. I can even bring him to you.”

  Yakob seemed to understand the last part as he suddenly perked up, having been listening idly the entire time.

  Or maybe he had understood everything, but didn’t care. He seemed to understand the banana joke, though.

  Sipsus, on the other hand, looked the same as he had been the entire time, with a puzzled expression.

  Is he still analysing why his friends laughed?

  “Really? That would be wonderful; we can go now if you don’t mind.”

  Now it was my turn to smile.

  “No, I wouldn’t mind. But first, tell me why you’re really here?”