James didn't hold back his hands while taking out his knife. The moment the knife appeared, the man's face changed.

He was a youth, not much older than James, probably nineteen or twenty. As James took out his knife, he also took out his sword.

The sword seemed quite domineering, not inferior to the knife by much. James glanced at the sword that was long with a thin blade and broad hilt and sneered.

"You have such a nice weapon there," he said.

"You too," and the youth said, "can we solve this without fighting then? I'm here just to deliver a message," the youth smiled, trying to retreat a step and act respectful.

"A message can be delivered to me, either in words or in blood," yet James wouldn't let him do anything like this. This was his place, and he was the owner of everything.

He wouldn't accept someone to move inside his home without being stopped!

"This… you aren't the one meant to receive the message."

"What do you know? It might be me and you don't know that!"

The youth glanced over James and the knife in his hand before saying: "My message is for a lady, not a man."

James wasn't sure about his guess, but his gut feeling told him it was Islinda. "Speak then and say what you want, I'm the owner of this place and you won't step a single step forward."

"You…" the youth seemed intrigued by the words of James, "you are the emperor of this lousy empire? The one who had Islinda?"

There was no room for doubt anymore. "Sure, now tell me what you want to say," James smiled before waving his eager knife, "or else let's compare our two weapons first."

'This sword…' the sound of Sirene rang in his mind, 'it's a king artifact! Be careful, they are usually very offensive.'

'A king artifact?' and James' surprise was beyond the roof, 'Wow, my luck is endless, hehehe.'

He wanted to gain a king artifact and feed it to one of his girls. There was no doubt that Stefanie would be the most favored one to him. After all she was the oldest and she helped him many times already.

'Do you know the king artifacts?' and Sirene's question startled him. 'Sure, who doesn't know them?' he lied, and Sirene knew he was yet she didn't comment.

'Just be careful, me alone can't stand against its attacks,' she warned.

'Stefanie perhaps?' he asked.

'Alone won't do,' and again Sirene warned, 'this sword is really hard to deal with. It's only weakness is the owner himself.'

James glanced at the youth who seemed hesitant to act. 'So kill him and the king will be mine!' he said, with much greed and anticipation.

'You will have a very short window to do that, as kings are always cowards. If it senses its master is dying, it won't hesitate to abandon him and leave from this place.'

'Really?' James didn't know why but he felt these rude words insulting him. 'How can I trap it then?'

'Stefanie,' Sirene said, 'she is the only one able to freeze it for a brief moment before you touch and take it inside your soul room.'

'And then?' he asked.

'Hehehe, leave the rest to us, hehehe.'

James didn't know why but he already felt sympathetic for that king. 'This one is for Stefanie to eat,' he made it clear so she or others wouldn't pull a trick behind his back.

'This… c'mon, give it to me,' she hurried to say before trying to act sexy, 'didn't I make you quite satisfied last time?'

He inwardly laughed before saying, 'This one is for Stefanie, don't trespass on her share.'

'Tsk,' she seemed quite annoyed, as she wanted to eat this king for herself. 'Then let her come and take it instead,' she tried to groan and act rebellious, yet James laughed as he replied:

'If you retreated, I won't touch you ever again. I won't use you, and if any chance comes, I won't hesitate to feed you to other girls.'

'You…' her voice was shaky, 'this isn't fair!' she shouted yet her tone kept shaky.

'Heheh, be a good girl and don't do much trouble, ok?'

The youth watched him for a whole minute before he started to act. It seemed he didn't come here for good, and the sword of his flashed by James' head, while James jumped high to evade it.

"Rumble!"

Yet the sword hit the stairs and a rumble occurred. James felt the entire palace shaking under this simple wave of the sword. 'Aim for the user, not the tool,' he said, reminding himself of what he should do.

So he took out the bow and the next moment he sent a couple of arrows to hit the youth.

Yet the intruder was wise and retreated, using his sword to deflect all the arrows. And James pressed forward after him, releasing a rain of arrows to the youth, until both of them went outside the palace.

This fight caused enough ruckus everywhere in the palace, and minutes didn't pass when Islinda came down hurrying from upstairs, glancing at this fight between her man and that stranger.

The moment she appeared from the stairs, the youth's eyes attracted to her. "Here she is," he said before waving his sword trying to hit her.

Yet James wasn't standing there doing nothing!

'Use your deadliest attack,' he said and the next moment a long thick arrow that looked like a spear appeared so suddenly and the next moment it appeared in front of the youth's face.

The youth wasn't prepared to receive such an attack, and while he tried to move his sword to face the incoming strike; another arrow like this appeared from his flank, and another coming from the top of his head!

James jumped high in the air before sending these arrows towards him. The youth couldn't help but use the attack he intended for Islinda to defend himself.

Aa gigantic crescent shaped sword strike emerged around the tip of his sword, welcoming all the incoming arrows and hitting them directly on.

They smashed, exploding mightily while the shock wave sent the youth flying backward.

Just as he tried to stabilize himself, he was speechless to find James turned into a dragon, descending upon his head with such a great body.

'Damn you!" the youth shouted and before stabilizing his body he was forced to send another attack towards James.

Just as the sword was about to release the attack, the body of this youth was paralyzed alongside his swords!

"Great timing Stefanie," James commended while he fell upon the stunned youth with his knife cutting his head off his shoulders with one hand, and the other was free to touch the king and send it inside his soul room.

"Go there and eat him," he said to Stefanie who didn't wait for his words and vanished.

Also the other two vanished with her. "Tsk, I hope a fight wouldn't erupt inside,' he muttered before glancing at the body of that youth while cancelling his transformation.

"It's a waste," he said, while starting to check anything this youth had.

He found a couple of storage rings that resembled his old storage devices. "Let's see what's inside," he muttered before wearing the five rings and checking their contents.

There he found many ores, precious materials, strange weapons piled in hills, and one picture.

He took that picture out to find out it was a bounty hunter request.

"Kill this person and you will gain a hundred great kingdoms worth of your reward."

These simple words were written under the picture of Islinda, while there was a silver key dimmed in the bottom of this paper. "When finishing the task, drop a blood of hers on the key to activate and link you to the owner to redeem your rewards," the text underlying the key said, written in very minute letters.

"Damn! Whoever is after her is really rich," James muttered before presenting the paper to Islinda who came running to him. "Can you recognize this key?"

He was pretty sure such a key should be famous, or else just the premise written here with no guarantee wouldn't be enough to entice anyone to act.

She took the paper and read what was written there. Her face turned gloomy the more she read, and when she glanced at the key, her face turned instantly red.

"Do you recognize it?" James knew the answer, just wanted to make sure first of his guess.

"Sure," she handed the paper to him, "this is the private key of my dear uncle."

Her words made James recall what she once told him about her uncle. "That man? Is he after you again?"

"Sigh," she shook her head, trying to control her raged emotions, "he must have heard the news about me appearing here and doing quite well. Tsk, my dear uncle, he should have been my guardian, yet here he is," she sighed, closing her eyes against memories of old where he was treating her nicely around her late father.

And that last memory she recalled was his vicious face laughing at her when his scheme was finally in place.

"Don't worry, no one will touch you here," James promised, before thinking how to secure her.

He wouldn't be always stationed here to protect, so he had to find another means to do that.