Heavy rain poured over Feladonia. Considering the city was located next to a desert it was considered quite auspicious. Normally, the streets would be filled with people greeting the rain; regardless of whether it was day or night. It was bit different this time. Everyone was kept indoors and city was faced with a lock down.

It had begun as any ordinary day until the Elite wing cordoned off a section of the city. There were rumours floating about in the city as bits of the pieces of the operation were leaked by the “normal” guards….something about catching a spy.

The proud people of Feladonia would encouraged the operation, they were all patriots. They were certain that the Elite wing would take care of the problem in less than ten minutes and be on their way.

Ten minutes turned into half day and half day crawled into the night. For the common man, the entire city had been brought to standstill. The nobles too took notice of the suffering of the common man. Why has gradually the entire city been locked out?

The only reply they got back was bottlenecks and elite wing operations.

The sent numerous queries as businesses started to suffer. Even a day’s loss would leave some people hungry for the night.

They finally received an official letter from the Elite wing; it said only this much, “An adventurer has breached the city.”

Pandemonium ensued the nobles who got wind of the news. An adventurer daring enough to walk into Feladonia could only be an S class adventurer. If an S class adventurer was present here, it would mean great destruction and battle would follow soon.

Thus nobles were in hurry packing and getting out of the city.

It would not be surprising if seeing one noble pack another doesn’t follow the same.

Even nobles who didn’t know why some of their friends were packing up their belongings and leaving the city in hurry, copied their behaviour. Their reasoning was simple, a noble is never around where there is danger.

Now with all the nobles of the city frantically scurrying around, lead to two problems.

Firstly, they added to the traffic and chaos. Thin streets which were already choked with warehouse shipments and commoners now had to deal with numerous lines of carriages of nobles and their servants.

Secondly, seeing the rich of the city flee, the poor panicked as well. Before long everyone was fleeing without really knowing why. With the traffic congestion not easing, people flocked to inns and bars to see how things developed.

Inns which were flooded with ale and beer now lay empty by evening.

This had interestingly two effects.

People who were rushing about in a panic were now dead drunk; hence calm.

The change was slow, but slowly people were less bothered about the rumours which had now been escalated to full blown news of war with the Alliance, to the fall of the Old Emperor etc….basically rumours of gigantic nonsensical proportion.

With the commoners back to normal, even some of the nobles returned. They realized that they had needlessly been panicking…and thus the traffic congestion eased once more in the city. It was still choked because of traffic being diverted from one side, but people always thought the Elite Wing was an absurd existence which served no real purpose. For now people were just happy that they finally got a reason to get rid of them.

Coming to the second effect; there was no ale or beer in any inn, pub or bar of the city.

There was a certain individual who always drank regardless of the time.

He was famous for his drinking habits, unlike other drunkards, this one was always greeted at pubs.

Why?

Because no matter how much he drank, he never misbehaved and he was always paid his dues. Even if this certain individual forgot to pay his dues, since everybody knew him, it was not so difficult to get ones money back. More so since he was so generous with it.

Now this certain individual only wakes up around evening, since he always sleeps at dawn. How most people wake up and have coffee, this one wakes up and has ale. Followed by dinner and ale…and then ale and beer or any alcohol available till dawn…

With all the inns and bars out of alcoholic beverages, a new chaos was born.

The individual started swearing and cursing at inn keepers and pub owners for not giving him any ale. He was convinced this was some sort of devious scheme by his hated elder brother or the Old Emperor. He attacked pub after pub in search for alcohol….till he realized there was none left.

Taking pity on the individual, his last bar finally gave him a word of advise; there might be some alcohol in the area locked out by the Elite Wing.

The now sober man thanked the bar keeper and rushed towards the locked out area. On his way he crashed into this hated elder brother. This is how their conversation went;

“Are you sober?”

“It really is none of your concern.” The individual shot back.

“It really isn’t but I really do feel Master gives you too much leeway.”

“Speak for yourself, you dog of the Empire.”

“I see your tongue is as twisted as ever.”

“If your eyes are working fine, then I am off.”

“Are you visiting your students? You should know that they are having troubles…but then again they are your students so it’s hardly surprising that they are struggling.”

The man frowned. His students were the best of the best. However for them to have trouble, the enemy must be a strong one.

“And you are kind enough to tell me this because?” The man asked as he looked at his brother.

“I needed your help…”

Again another statement which the man found difficult to believe. His brother was perfection, for him to need help must require an all-out war with the Alliance.

“Don’t tell me the nonsense rumours were true…has war really broken out?” The man joked.

“Don’t be foolish, the Alliance will never attack the Empire in a million cycles. I just need you to find someone…”

“Heh….” The man snorted. Between work and alcohol his feelings were clear.

“I will take that as a no?” His brother confirmed the answer.

“Go find them yourselves…if you have a headache looking for them then good for them….I hope you do get one.”

There was hate in each word that they exchanged with each other.

The brothers let off a blood thirst that would even make the strongest warriors shiver…but then they stopped. There was no need to fight each other.

“Who are you looking for?” The man asked.

“A troublesome individual; who has learnt of the maiden’s existence.”

The man stopped dead in his tracks. “How are you going to find him?”

The matter his brother brought up; was a matter of concern.

“I planned to take your help….however seeing as I have been turned down, I am left with no option but to lock down the city.”

“Ah…good luck with that.” The man smirked.

With that said the conversation came to an end.

The two walked past each other as if neither existed.

The man rushed to check on his students, he knew his brother would not joke of such matters lightly. He would have honestly helped his brothers…..but the feelings were best described as complex.

It began raining.

The man was upset, he didn’t like the water.

He was upset even more when he reached his students.

Some dead, some asleep, his brightest crying and the strongest running off with the enemy.

‘How long ago was it that I had assumed the responsibility entrusted to me? The last time the Alliance poked us was a hundred years ago…time really does fly by…’ The man thought to himself.

He wouldn’t have normally intervened in his student’s operations; but the situation was grave – the man was sobering up at an alarming rate. His disposition gave him only one option – take care of the problem and get back to drinking.

The Cardinal made his appearance.

****

As explained before, the Cardinal was here for only reason – alcohol.

He really wasn’t interested in the problems of his students.

However now that he assumed the role of the Cardinal, there was no option but to play the character to the fullest extent possible.

The greatest class of Feladonia is now in session.

“I fail to understand how my students could not even take care off one low levelled adventurer.” The Cardinal said as he kicked Sora into the air.

Vanessa and the others were silent. They had no answer. Rather, any answer would be treated as an excuse and met with severe punishment. The only sound in the area was Sora groaning in pain.

*uff*

Sora flew at least fifteen feet into the air before landing back down. He hit the mud ground with full force.

“I might still be able to understand, if it was a one against one….but” The Cardinal picked up the muddied Sora and threw him like trash against a wall. “It was the entire class against one.”

The wall against which Sora was thrown against had his fully body impression.

Sora was crying in pain mentally. If there was a log out option, he would have done so.

For the last fifteen minutes or so the Cardinal had been treating him like a rag doll, tossing him about in the air with not a care in the world.

“Now, someone needs to take responsibility…Vanessa are you not the commander of the Erito Class?”

Vanessa hung her head in shame.

“Disappointing…some one of your calibre simply failing to handle one adventurer….”

“…” Vanessa had no reply. Her confidence had been dwindling more so after seeing her teacher handle the same person they struggled so long with, relative ease.

“I expect a full report of the incident at my desk tomorrow morning.” The Cardinal ordered.

“Yes Sir!” Vanessa replied back like a soldier.

“Hmmpphh..” The only response from the Cardinal she got back. A disappointed snort of disapproval.

“Do mention in that report, that you failed to clean to your own mess.” The Cardinal was now just bullying Vanessa.

Jacques and Sliver wanted to defend their commander’s actions but Ramona stopped them. The man in front of them was the Cardinal. He was one of the hundred Cardinals of the hundred cities of the Empire. The Cardinal represented power and stature. Speaking against him would only earn his ire and wrath.

Ramona felt most guilty that Vanessa was taking the fall for her short comings but she knew too well that if she spoke up, nothing would change. The Cardinal was a sly one. He was probably watching them from the very start….it is unlikely that he did not know what was going about….but was looking for an opportunity like this to present itself.

“Ramona…” The Cardinal directed his attention to Ramona next. He realized that Vanessa would not be an easy opponent to bully mentally.

The Cardinal picked up Sora who was nearly passing out.

“What is this?” The Cardinal asked with his hand pointing to Sora.

“An Adventurer Sir!” Ramona replied back.

“WRONG!” The Cardinal snapped.

Ramona trembled slightly.

“THIS IS AN ENEMY! BEFORE ANYTHING ELSE HE IS AN ENEMY! DO YOU UNNDERSTAND?” The Cardinal blasted Ramona.

Ramona had her eyes tightly shut in fear as if each word the Cardinal spoke was like a sword being thrust at her.

“YES SIR!” Ramona replied back although very scared.

“WE DO NOT LOVE THE ENEMY, WE DO NOT PROTECT THE ENEMY, WE DO NOT HOLD HANDS WITH THE ENEMY” The Cardinal shouted in a sergeant like style. “DO YOU UNDERSTAND?”

“YES SIR!” Ramona replied back. She flinched in fear. The Cardinal had let out some of his bloodlust at her.

The Carindal slapped Sora till he woke up. “Daring one aren’t you…sleeping in my class…wake up..”

Sora opened his eyes slowly. He had been using all his mental strength to protect his mind from being read.

Sora’s eyes met with the Cardinal.

The Cardinal could not see Sora’s eyes, they were too small and hidden behind torn bits of bandages.

However, Sora could see his own reflection in Cardinal’s silver eyes clearly. Sora could also read the Cardinal. The man wasn’t interested in him, he didn’t care whether Sora was an adventurer or a normal enemy. Those matters were trivial to the Cardinal. The Cardinal only cared about one thing….that Sora could never guess was alcohol.

“Take him away!” The Cardinal screamed at his students as he let go of Sora and began walking away.

He looked back at the adventurer one last time. Did he become heavier from the last time I held him?

The Cardinal was confused but didn’t care.

His job here was done; Sora had been cuffed and his students had been taught a lesson…all this while being sober he considered it to be an accomplishment.