“I am very, very, sorry for what my teacher did Sir…?” As I asked for forgiveness from this middle eastern merchant in his 40s for Miss Marie’s action, even bowing so low to show that it was sincere, I waited for him to tell me his name.

“Call me Hosayn, you boy?” though from his tone and mannerism I could tell that he was still livid, he gave his name quite calmly.

“Martyn Wulf, Sir Hosayn!” I replied to him in haste.

“Wait… ohhh!! Now I remember, I’ve heard rumours and talks about a second ruler of this kingdom in the coffee house, the Lord Protector… didn’t expect you to be this young nor did I expect the talks about your hair to be true…” he stated while in a bit of awe at my hair.

“Well either way, as the Lord Protector of this kingdom, it would be a tremendous ease of my heart that you forgive my teacher and to convince you!” I stopped mid-sentence and rummage my pocket to find the letter from Guillaume. “Here! It’s written in your language if you’re wondering about it!”

As he was reading the letter that Guillaume send, he was shocked at the number of gold coins I promised him. He then asked quite nervously if I was serious and I replied that this was a serious apology gift and… though I didn’t say it to him outright, I implied to him that this is, a connection for me and him to have, economically speaking.

When I heard about this Sahrawukiran merchant, I was of course dead set on having a cordial relation with one another, a message if you could say for the other foreign merchant.

But I saw an opportunity too, to have an inside in this world’s international trade biz, so… I set him up with a bank account here in Albion, with 100 gold coins as an apology gift and a persuasion to keep trading here.

“Well… tell your teacher that I forgive her but, keep that woman in your house tight next time!” Though I understand that this is a cultural thing, and this was definitely no place in time for me to bash his world view, considering the mess that Miss Marie made and the progress I just made with him… I couldn’t help but to silently be disgusted at him.

“Thank you, Sir Hosayn! And from today onwards I hope you would trade more with this kingdom!” I kept that disgust for myself and said with gratitude as lent my hand to him, waiting for it to be shaken.

“Will do boy!” He cheerfully said while shaking my hand. “And… I know you mean well, you are even speaking my language after all, quite… fluently if have to say for a foreigner, but tell that friend of yours who wrote this letter that I am a Parthavac! Not a Sahrawukiran!” He forwarded his concern.

“Ohh! Of course, Sir Hosayn, I’ll tell him immediately when I met him again in Londini!” I noted his concern

After that mess resolved, I could finally do the thing that got me out of that castle in the first place, exploring!

More or less with the Princess, Amadela and the Grand Duke, Alaxandair. They’re cloaked and all to not attract any unwanted attention.

Also to see if what Amadela said about this city was true.

“First it was Tuathic, Now Sahrawukiran?!” Amadela said in amazement.

“No… that wasn’t Sahrawukiran… I’ve heard a lot of Sahrawukiran since a child from these kinds of foreign brown men that my uncle invited, and that wasn’t Sahrawukiran!” Alaxandair stated.

“Yes, Sir Hosayn did state that he was a Parthavac not a Sahrawukiran!” I clarified to them.

“Parthavac?” Amadela asked curiously.

“Their people like the Sahrawukiran, brown, slightly short, wear turbans too. But they live north east from the Sargon Mountains, their actually neighbours, only a mountain away.” Alaxandair answered.

“Ohh!” Amadela said.

“You know, for a man who outwardly says things that made him looked like a traditionalist… you’re awfully and quite frighteningly even! A man full of knowledge about this world than the Princess!” I stated to him.

“Yeah, well… that’s what you get for travelling around the world and meeting various people with your father and uncle since a child!” He said it like it was a bad thing. “But I would say the same to you Lord Protector, minus the traditionalist part, your knowledge of this world’s languages is frightening as well!”

“Bah… this is probably just your god’s doing, to be honest in my ears, both of you are speaking in my language!” I rationalized it to them.

“Huh… Lux do work in mysterious ways…” Alaxandair said in an astonished tone.

“Indeed…” Amadela said in an astonished tone as well.

After that, we went off from the harbor and back to the city to, well… explore! Alaxandair and Amadela guided me to places of interest in Geamradh.

The first one was the town square, Quite lively though but it pales in comparison to the crowdness of Londini’s town square. I mean it’s cold as hell and the ones out from the house were people with business to run, trade to run, or just buying essential everyday stuff from the central market.

Then we went east from the town square, that took a couple of walks where we landed ourselves to the statue of King Ruiseart I Feannag, nicknamed ‘the Shield of the North’ for a goddamn good reason.

I’ve read some bits of history back in Londini about the rulers of Tuath, including the old kings, one of the most notable among them was Ruiseart I and like his nickname, he is the defender of the north.

The legend goes that the neighbouring Kingdom of Ousion, south of Tuath where the majority of the land is under the control of the Margraviate of Sur now. Was inherited by the King of Estalion and this spelled trouble to the other kingdoms in the Albion peninsula which… they weren’t wrong.

The King of Estalion wanted to do what Krone did to this peninsula about a millennia early and he, King Charles IX’s campaign was actually going smoothly, his decisive victory of the battle of Jacques bridge, over the fleur river, secured him Vin Côte and the last thing on the list to end his conquest was the subjugation of Tuath.

But of course, I know that there wasn’t King Charles I of Albion, well… there was King Karl I of Albion, but it’s a German name not a French name.

One thing that really piqued my interest on him was when I read about ingenius defensive tactics that he used. From how he uses wooden stakes as a deterrent for knights and heavy cavalries, to longbowmen placed on higher grounds.

Reading the accounts was like a reading Agincourt and Nicopolis, the man really deserved his nickname.

I then inspected the statue, saw and read the plaque beneath it.

Historians will say I am the pinnacle of Tuath’s many kings before and after for the action I did in Tournus, but in truth… it was to ensure that there will be kings that will surpass what I did there.

Huh… quite the humble legend…

As we finished admiring King Ruiseart I’s statue, we then head to the next main attraction of this winter city, the cathedral!

It was named Cathédrale Saint-Alaxandair in honour of Saint Alaxandair, the patron saint of Tuath which, was the name that Alaxandair and his uncle got from.

But it even become much more sense when Amadela explained to me that Saint Alaxandair, was the youngest brother of the first King of Tuath, King Máelcolim I Feannag, essentially, he is their ancestor.

Entering the cathedral, it was pretty much the same like in Cathédrale Sainte-Anne.

The beautiful archway at the front that leads to the nave, silver chandeliers illuminating the room from the ceilings, the confession rooms in the side and the one thing I like about cathedrals, their frescos.

This time it was slightly different, there were frescos dedicated for the first heroes and this world’s creation story, obviously. But the one that caught my eyes were the fresco that tells the story of how Geamradh was founded, through the connection of King Máelcolim I Feannag, Saint Alaxandair, and the First Seeress of the North.

The fresco speaks of two twins, King Máelcolim and the first Seeress of the North, and their youngest brother, Saint Alaxandair.

It tells that they were born in the Tuath woods with a loving family, but the harsh winter of the north brought them a lot of disasters that took the lives of their parents in their adolescences.

This drove them to move south where it landed them to the land that is now known as Geamradh.

There they met with an old fishermen who needs a helping hand, the three siblings help him earnestly with ease where to their surprise, he revealed himself to be none other than Lux himself.

He revealed that he was testing them of their charity and kindness, which they passed with flying colours, Lux then blessed them and gave each of the siblings a favour.

Saint Alaxandair asked Lux to be his apostle which resulted in him being the patron saint of Tuath.

King Máelcolim I Feannag asked Lux to be his warrior which resulted in him being the first King of Tuath.

But the first Seeress of the North on the other hand, asked something different from her brothers. She asked to have a greater relationship with his holiness that lead to her being the only mortal to be his voice as well as vision, this in turn made her to be the first Seeress of the North.

While I was still observing this fresco dedicated for the three siblings, I noticed something that I should have question earlier, the brothers name was given but the sister… the first Seeress of the North name wasn’t told in the fresco and in any kind of records…

“The first Seeress of the North’s name? Uhh…. I hate to admit it, but her name is lost in history… but I’ve heard rumours circulating in the monastery of Saint Donchan, between the monks and the scholars there, saying that the Tyluns know what her name is!” Amadela said.

“Tyluns?” I curiosly asked.

“They’re owl-like familiars here in Tuath that inhabited the Tuath forest near Lake Naofa!” As knowledgeable as he is, Alaxandair explained.

“Hmm… well it seems I have another place to visit!” While I was bit excited on another adventure in this cold northern land, it was cut short by Alaxandair.

“I… don’t recommend for you, Lord Protector, to go there… they’re a very territorial familiar and they won’t hesitate to kill you on sight! Some of my vassals were even reported to have died there… eyes pecked out quite ferociously and… by Lux… encircled in a pool of their own blood…” Though I was ready to be a bit defensive on this, hearing his descriptions of what happen to the victims… were quite enough to make a wanderlust boy think twice.

Leaving the cathedral with a bit of nausea, from Alaxandair’s horrific description of the Tyluns’ brutality, we went back to Castle Feannag, as it is the last landmark in this tour of Geamradh.

Thinking back again when I read the written history of Castle Feannag in Londini, there was only one thing that peaked on my head, the land where the castle was built was originally a hill forest and it was inhabited by the Korps, Ceniza’s kind.

It is also the reason why the Feannags used a crow symbol as their coat of arms, as Alaxandair told me, while walking, that there was a deal between the Korps and his ancestors involving the castle. The deal was that the Feannags will immortalize the Korps by having their kind in the Feannags’ coat of arms in exchange for that hill forest.

As we were walking through the city, we encountered a strange man in our way where he suddenly.

“Your Gra-” The strange man in a heavy brown fur coat called out to Alaxandair but was stop immediately by Alaxandair himself.

“Keep it down Durell!” Though it was a bit funny seeing a man shutting another man’s mouth who was a bit taller than him, his displeased tone and quick action was something not to be laughed at.

“Ahhh sorry my grace…” Durell apologized when he saw the three of us cloaked, realizing his grace and his guests were going out incognito.

“Well… what do you want Durell?” I could tell from his facial expression that he was still a bit vexed but, Alaxandair asked Durell with a more gentler tone.

“It’s about your cousin… your grace…” Durell said with a bit of nervous tone.

“Damn, he is way too early…” He said with a more vexed tone of voice, but there was something more interesting as I luckily heard this mumble from him. “What is he up to…”

“What should I do your grace?” Durell asked.

“Distract him for a bit, I still have things to finish up here, and do not let him near Ruith!” Alaxandair ordered.

“Yes, your grace!” Durell then dismissed himself.

Alaxandair then explain that Durell, his castellan, just informed him about his cousin, from his mother’s side, has arrived. He then stated his fear for what his cousin’s going to plot against Ruith.

“Hahaha… you’re such an overbearing brother you know that Alax!” Amadela dismissed his suspicion with a laugh. “If you’re wondering Lord Protector, his cousin, Baron Domnall, once proposed a marriage between him and Ruith, which our Grand Duke here didn’t took that lightly, hahaha… I still remembered how you even threw that pie at him when you saw him kneeling before Ruith!”

“Ughh… well I just don’t want that kind of man being near Ruith!” He said like a true siscon he is.

Though the surface is quite cut and clear, and to be honest he probably is an overprotective brother when remembering what Ruith said back in her room, the mumble that Alaxandair said… was quite intriguing really.

I don’t want to jinx it but… I think there’s a power struggle between him and his cousin… well, either way I do hope it’s just the former, because… if the latter was true… then this will be a fuckin pain in the ass situation.

* * *

As we three walked this snowy and somewhat slippery road, we noticed something of interest in the alleyways and something popped up again in me when seeing the alleyways, it’s to find the truth if what Amadela said about there being no slums in Geamradh.

With this remembrance and us being quite intrigued at curiously crowded alleyway, we went in there, but what we saw there was something even I wasn’t expecting.

“Excuse me! Coming through!” Alaxandair cleared a path for me and Amadela to go through the crowd. “Move people! What’s the commo-” Alaxandair voice suddenly gone.

“What’s going on?” Amadela behind me asked.

“I don’t know… but I have a bad feeling about this…” And my guts didn’t lie.

I went up to the front and squirm a bit in the crowd to the front where… a dead body greeted me.

Still warm from how saturated its skin was and… my god, all the limbs were cut off gruesomely from the body, making this poor sod look like a nugget with the limbs just near him there… what the fuck…

“Okay that’s enough people!” Alaxandair took of his hood and revealed his face.

“My Lord!” one of the bystanders near him said in shocked and moved backwards, where a lot of people followed suite with him.

“One of you go call the guards!” Alaxandair ordered. “Damn… this must the tenth this past two weeks…”

And as I heard that… rage just burst into my head.

“What the fuck do you mean this is the tenth this past two weeks, ALAXANDAIR?!!?!” I was shocked, quite livid even when hearing that many body count in the short span of time.

“I don’t know! I don’t know… I thought it was just random murders, but yes… this is definitely a serial killer’s doing, this… wait…” Alaxandair stopped mid-sentence where he spotted something in the body.

“This is… by Lux… it’s him!!!” He said in with a realizing tone.

“Wha… who?” I asked.

“The cut in the man’s face, near his left eye do you see it!?” He said as I spotted the thing, he wanted me to see.

“Yeah… the tiny upside-down triangle… who is it Alaxandair?”

“This killer, is the one who killed my uncle and father…”