Chapter 36 - The Monsters Of Flurisburg (1/2)

By the time I’d reached ‘home’ once more, the morning had already gone by. Both Rya’de and Ma’ra were out, meaning the house was left under the children’s care. Now, I was back in my room, writing down important things to remember in a small parchment that’d been kindly left on my desk. There were a lot of things taking up my thoughts.

The new dimension, void magic, school, and Great Beasts.

Knock. Knock. Knock.

“Yes?” I asked, looking up from my notes.

My room’s door creaked open slowly and a little boy peeked through the gap. Orange bangs covered most of his face and his smile revealed disjointed baby teeth.

“Hello, Mr June!” Kai’ra said, smiling sheepishly.

I wanted to scowl, but forced a sloppy welcoming grin onto my face.

“Hey, Kai’ra. What do you need?”

He squeezed his head through and stuck out his hand. “Can you help me bandage this cut?”

It was quite a deep gash and lined the entire palm of his hand. Strangely though, it wasn’t bleeding as heavily as a cut of that size normally would.

What would I know, though? I wasn’t a nurse. In fact, I didn’t even know if I’d be able to help him. However, the inner father in me couldn’t pass up this opportunity.

“Sure. How’d you get that anyways?” I asked as I followed him out of the room.

Walking down the hallway, he replied; “Don’t tell father, but I was playing with his greatsword.”

I barely suppressed a chuckle. Kids were kids, after all.

We made our way into the dining room, where an open bandage already lay on the table. It was stained with blood, leading me to assume he’d tried to put it on himself before coming to ask me.

“Why didn’t you ask Cle’de to help you?”

He pouted and stuck out his hand for me to see. “Cle’de will tell father.”

I shrugged. “Fair enough.”

Taking up the bandage in one hand, I gently placed the stained side onto his wound. He hissed, but did not retract his hand. Once the cloth fully covered his cut, I twisted it around his thumb, then back across his palm and repeated it over and over again, alternating between his thumb and forefinger. By the time I was done, a large mountain of cloth had formed above his wound. I wasn’t sure if that was what was meant to happen, but… It was good enough.

Kai’ra stared curiously at the bandage and then back up at me. “This doesn’t look like how mother does it.”

I immediately felt pressured. “Well, uh, you see, it’s a… secret… family… technique?”

He shrugged and smiled. “Ok!”

I breathed a sigh of relief. That was a close one.

“Hey… Mr June?” He asked hesitantly.

“Yeah?” I replied, wiping the sweat off my forehead.

“Can you teach me how to use a sword?”

The stairs creaked as Kai’ra led the way down to the basement, holding a light bulb attached to a stick in his non-injured hand. I’d told him I couldn’t teach him, but he insisted on showing me the sword anyway. At the opposite end of the corridor was a wooden door that I hadn’t noticed before, which exposed a creepy looking spiral stairway.

I had two very pressing questions. First, why in Erobeus did timid Rya’de have a greatsword? Secondly, why would Kai’ra want me to teach him how to use a sword? Even I didn’t learn how to use a sword until I was past twenty.

Repeating these questions again and again in my head, I followed him down the stairway.

Once we reached the bottom, he hung the torch on the wall and unlocked a small door with a key. I realised the floor had changed from wood planks to cobblestone.

“Father’s greatsword is his pride and joy, so please don’t dirty it.” Kai’ra said seriously before finally pulling open the door.

‘Like you can talk.’ I wanted to say, but what lay past the door completely caught me off guard.

It was a small room, dimly lit by a few light bulbs scattered around the walls. The wall opposite to us was bare empty except for a single, massive greatsword hanging upside down. On the other two walls were racks of dozens and dozens of smaller swords, at least three layers thick. To our right was a stone slab that acted as a table, connected to a large brick hole in the wall. A large, metal cauldron lay to our left, halfway filled with dirty, blackened water.

This place wasn’t just a basement.

It was a forge.

“This used to be my father's old forge.” Kai’ra explained, swiping some dust off the table and onto the floor. “He used to come down here every day for the past ten years, hammering away at the metal blades you see all around.”

“What happened? And why is that beautiful sword holed up here?” Something seemed off about this place.

Kai’ra made his way around the table and took out one of the swords from the rack. “Well, to put it simply, you happened.”

“I happened? What’s that supposed to mean?”

“My father was never the best blacksmith. He never made the strongest swords, nor the sharpest, nor the most beautiful.”

“And what’s that got to do with me?”

Before he could reply, a screeching sound of metal on metal sounded beside me. I spun around, only to come face to face with a girl with black hair and green eyes. Cle’de.

I breathed a sigh of relief, then remembered something that Kai’ra had said. “Wait. Didn’t you tell me that you didn’t want Cle’de to know you cut your hand?”

He smiled. A wicked smile. A smile that did not suit the features of a ten year old boy.

“My wound is not the problem anymore. You see, my sister told me to bring you down here, and promised me cookies in return. I made up that story all to bait you into coming down here.”

“I mean… you could’ve just asked?”

He pouted. “Well that’s no fun, is it?”

God, he was beginning to sound like Lando.

“He’s right.” Cle’de spoke, walking out from the shadows like some kind of assassin. “Let me tell you why I brought you here.”

“But you didn’t-”

“Father and mother have always been kind. Too kind. Did you know how long we knew of your upcoming arrival? Let me tell you. More than half a year. Since you were only one person, you aren’t allowed to have your own home here. You’re also a threat, meaning you have to be under the supervision of a villager. If it wasn’t for my parents, you’d have been left out on the street- or worse.”

“Couldn’t I have just gone with someone else then?”

“No one wanted you.” She replied flatly.

“And why was that?” I asked, my eyebrow raised.

“Because you are a member of the Royal family.”

“So?”

“We’ve had a member of the royal family here before.”

“You… have?” I’d never heard of it. Or this place.

She nodded. “A long, long time ago. Generations and generations have passed down the tale. It was a man, an SSS ranked threat like you. He was brought here like you. But he was so strong that he simply walked back out, back into Erobeus just like that. Not before he decided to destroy half the town, though. After that, he received God’s blessing, making him untouchable.”

“This all sounds like a tall tale to me…” I muttered, not really believing them. They were children, after all.

Without warning, Cle’de dashed forward, her sword straight for my throat. She froze in that position, mere centimetres away from taking my head off.

“You better believe it.” She whispered softly. “He was your relative. I should take you out right now, shouldn’t I? You might do the same thing.”

Seriously, why was I always being threatened by teenagers?

“Well, I can assure you,” I said slowly, stepping away from the blade. “I won’t do that. I’m nowhere near strong enough to.”

Surprisingly, she stopped, and tossed out one of the swords she held to my feet. “I can tell. Pick it up.”

And now, I was even more confused than before. Hesitantly, I took up the sword and observed it. Although it was nowhere near the quality of the greatsword on the wall, even I could tell it was well crafted.

“Are you not angry?” I asked. “Why did you give me this?”

“Well…” She seemed to ponder the question for a moment. “I’ll tell you that later. For now, follow me.”

A half hour later, dragged out of the house by Cle’de, I held a sword in one hand and my pride in the other.

“So can you tell me where we’re going?” I asked, trudging meekly beside Cle’de. Since we’d taken the backstreets, no one seemed about. And what I mean by ‘backstreets’ was practically a forest.

She stopped and turned on me, hands on her hips. “I am going to test you. For someone of royal blood, you sure are obedient.”

“Test me with what?” I asked, exasperated. I’d just about had enough of this nonsense.

She tapped her foot on the floor before sighing and stepping to the side. “Fine, fine. This should be far enough. They’re already here, anyway. Let’s see how many you can kill.”

“Kill?” Wait. Did she mean humans or mons-

Hiss… Hiss…

I looked up, only realising now just how far we’d come into the forest. Barely any light filtered through the giant trees canopies. Thick vegetation such as bushes and large mounds of leaves increased the humidity even further, causing me to sweat.

Out of the bushes, slinking from the branches, worming out of holes, came the horrifying snake-like creatures.

They had the same physical structures as snakes; forked tongues, slit-eyes, and a scaly body as thick as my thigh.

And they were all ready to feast on me.