A half an hour later a knock on the door disturbed the silence. YunYun, still dressed in the dark red robe led two officers upstairs when under a dim light they saw a one handed old man busying himself around the alchemy workstation.

“Good, you’re here!” Even before they managed to say anything, old man spoke, “The stuff I promised is ready – you can deliver it to general Tubaj. Karl, show them!”

When Karl led both officers in to adjacent room and they saw the two boxes, one said in surprise, “Two boxes?”

“Oh, the stuff we agreed upon is in the green vials – as planned, odorless and tasteless.” Elder explained, “But I managed to finish early so in the meantime I brewed something that will allow your people to withstand the nausea they will feel on the battlefield, because … well, you know why. It’s your call whether you want to use it or not, I don’t care. But if you do, remember, the poison is the green one! Even if you have no clue about the alchemy, you should be capable of recognizing the colors, right?”

“How do we use it?” Officer asked.

“You already know how to use the poison. The resistance serum that I made for your own people is to be consumed in a similar fashion.” Elder patiently explained.

“Thank you, elder! Your work is much appreciated.” One of the officers politely said.

“Good! I’m leaving the town, so give my regards to the general. Now, off with you!” Elder commanded.

“Sir, if I may say, general Tubaj will probably want to speak to you before you leave.” Officer said.

“I don’t have time! We just received an urgent message about major events in Moira. General will have to wait till our next meeting. Wish him good luck! Although with all of this he won’t need any … hehehe!” Elder laughed at the end a creepy laugh, then mumbled something under his nose and stopped paying attention to the two officers. In fact, from the very start he was busy with something on the alchemy table and didn’t even turn towards them.

“Do you want me to call a couple of your men over to carry the boxes for you?” Karl asked seeing that the elder ignored their guests.

“No. General would kill us if something happened to the product.” One of the officers shook his head and said. Then they took one box each and left.

Soon after four people in dark red robes left the house as well and proceeded westwards. As soon as they were in a safe distance, prince rushed back to Ichita while Nick, YunYun and Zia went back so they could leave once more. There were total of seven people from the Holy Order in the house when they broke in, therefore all seven had to leave to not create any suspicions.

The success of this whole plan was, in fact, was largely based on luck, therefore they couldn’t make any mistakes, especially such simple ones.

‘Hopefully they don’t fool around but come back right away.’ Prince thought to himself while rushing through the night.

Although it was still dark, the east was already slightly colored in red and the sun would be up in an hour. The adventure part of this mission was over and prince had to go back to a real military work. Although normally he would’ve preferred so, this whole endeavor was full of excitement and prince asked himself if everything the trio did was in such style. After this experience he didn’t question the report on the Nestri continent anymore and, in fact, honestly believed they pulled off that stunt in Moira as well. Even if compared to him they were still kids, he suddenly felt he had spent too much time in the south and started longing for home.

But that had to wait, at least for a few days. He still had several important things to do and, of course, fight the battle in two days, or rather – tomorrow.

Prince prayed to himself that the general Tubaj would be trusting enough and really use the poison the Holy Order prepared. Although their plan already was a great success, it would be even bigger if that happened. Currently general Grant and his best people personally monitored the few spies in their own camp and soon one or two should depart to receive the poison delivery from the Sand’s forces.

In any case, if the spies received the real poison, Nick’s cheeky plan failed, but the spies would be captured and killed. If the spies will try to poison the army with the green stuff Nick prepared, they will get captured, but only shortly before the battle after they have reported their ‘success’ to the enemy. In the latter scenario there was also some probability that the poison would be used on the Sand’s forces, at least some of it. That sounded too good to be true, but there was a chance.

Prince shook his head trying to get rid of these distracting thoughts. He was almost back in the garrison and no matter what, he had to prepare his troops for the upcoming battle.

It was only five days later when prince Helio could finally relax.

Currently he was sitting on a rock on the beach and watching how his three companions were laughing and shouting while jumping trough the waves. He went for a swim in the ocean earlier, but somehow he felt he had to keep the bearings of a crown prince and now sat looking handsome but lonely and deep in thoughts.

Few days ago things went better than expected. He couldn’t figure out if the trio brought such luck or the Holy Order’s reputation was so incredible within the Sand’s forces, but the next day after their stunt in Sethalia, traitors from their army smuggled the fake poison in Ichita’s garrison. The following day it got quickly distributed through canteens and allowed general Grant to mark few more spies who had infiltrated their forces over the years.

From what it looked, the Sand kingdom prepared for this even for several years and mobilized, probably, all the ‘sleeping’ spies they had on the inside. With this came the opportunity to weed out almost thirty people and over half of those worked in canteens! Although Ichita was the largest garrison in the south and housed over seven thousand soldiers, it was still an astronomical number. Prince got cold shivers thinking of what would’ve happened if not for the three ‘dolphins’ who were currently jumping the waves.

Be as it may, the right moment to catch those spies came only the day after, the day the grand battle took place and also only just right before the battle started. Despite their anger, prince and general had to wait until the spies reported of their success and some more so the Sand’s forces would not get suspicious.

At the same time they received some promising news from their own scouts. They reported that the Sand’s forces before the battle received a special meal which would enhance their performance. Although it looked like a regular stew, according to the reports the soldiers looked more energetic and vigorous.

‘Can alchemy really be this magical?’ Prince mused.

He could understand that the green brew Nick prepared within couple of hours could invigorate soldiers and actually work as a tonic. Although it sounded unbelievable, his seven thousand men did perform much better after spies tried to poison them mixing it in to food. Despite being curious, prince held back and didn’t inquire how much did it cost – the previous event with the ‘truth serum’ was still fresh in his memory.

In addition, yesterday Nick asked if he could take a look at elder Jan’s corpse to see if there was anything useful on it.

And he said had gotten the treasured ring from the Holy Order’s elder already few years back in Rolum while that old bastard was still alive? How was that even possible? But, despite having those questions, prince blushed from shame. With how busy he was with the preparation for the battle and everything that happened after that, he completely forgot to give back the meteorite ring the kid lent him.

Nick took the ring, went further away, removed the elder’s body and quickly searched it. Then generously poured some yellowish powder on it and set it on fire. But what happened next surprised prince to his bones – when Nick came back, he gave prince the ring back with words. “You probably found it handy, so use it. I hope you won’t need to take the ring from your father for many more years.”

Indeed, prince hoped so as well. His father was a great king and had to rule for a long time. He’ll probably give prince some speech this time as well when he returned to Aurora.

Then a wide grin appeared on prince’s face. He remembered the general’s speech before the battle. Obviously, it was normal, basically mandatory, for a leader to hold speech before he sent his troops to the death to raise morale and general Grant held always a heroic and beautiful one.

But this time his choice of words made even many seasoned soldiers laugh. He spoke about charging at the enemy and shouting in their faces so lout they would sh*t their pants. And then hitting them on their heads until they cry for their mommies. Prince had to give his deepest respect to the general. Even though he sometimes was rigid in his decisions and quite old fashioned, he had a huge amount of experience and during crucial times he could act in a way no one expected, but everyone needed.

Only a while later the Sun kingdom’s soldiers understood the deepest meaning of their general’s words. General Grant had implemented some secret plan and his words started to make a real sense when the two armies clashed and in few minutes most of the Sand’s forces started to stink horribly and fall one after another.

From the looks of it, the poison didn’t kill by itself, but had awful physiological effects. Soldiers suddenly lost control over their anal sphincters and the contents of their guts uncontrollably flowed down their legs. That alone would be bad and cause discomfort, but the foul stench on the battlefield was a normal part of the battle since many bodies were cut open left and right and soldiers still could fight through the stench coming from the guts of the diseased. The real problem was when immediately after that their eyes started to water, their vision to blur and soldiers became almost blind.

That was when the massacre of the Sand’s forces begun. The Sun’s soldiers quickly realized the hidden meaning in general’s words and within an hour almost completely annihilated the enemy. They suffered very few losses wile wiping out over ten thousand men strong attacking army. Sun’s forces even had hard time to follow orders and only reluctantly fell back without charging further towards Sethalia. For centuries it has been the Sun kingdom’s policy to not invade other countries and neither general Grant nor prince wanted to change it.

Despite the fact that the Sun’s forces only defended and fell back right after, this day will become a symbol of shame for the Sand kingdom and most likely will never be forgotten. For decades or may be even centuries the bards will sing how thousands of Sand’s soldiers died while shitting their pants and crying for their mommies.

Although it sounded great for the Sun kingdom, it was horrible for the other side. Prince understood why Nick, after returning from their undercover mission in Sethalia, refused to take any part in the following events and they both, together with YunYun withdrew from the city. They were civilians after all and this war was the actual hell.

What amused prince, though, was his little sister who despite being a descendant of the Li family, had Maxwell blood in her. Before the battle she disappeared only to show up dressed like a regular soldier right before the battle. Soon after she transformed into a terrifying windmill of death on the battlefield, but after ‘playing around’ for few minutes while scaring the enemy and her own forces as well, she came over to prince and complained that the fight was too boring and even trees in the forest pose more challenge. Prince and general Grant could only sigh and shake their heads.

But currently this little adorable palace’s ‘nightmare’ was running over the waves, playing catch with two others and, while they should be too old for such a childish game, they were obviously practicing even now.

Prince watched how Zia had hard time catching the two others and after few minutes started pouting. Even he had to agree that the weird couple was incredibly fast, much faster than him. In fact, he doubted he could even catch his little sister. Of course, he would never admit to that saying it out loud.

Zia finally had enough and went over to prince when Nick shouted something and she suddenly got all fired up again. They were quite far and prince didn’t hear what it was, but it definitely was not an insult or a tease – his little sister darted towards him with the other two following.

Just when the prince thought she would run over and hang out with him for a while, Zia stormed by leaving only few words behind, “The last one to get to Aurora pays for pizza!”

Pizza? What was that? He had never heard of such thing even while he was in capital, but from what it looked, he would be the one to pay. The trio was already few hundred meters away.

Prince sighed, got up and followed. Those three really were maniacs of training. He still remembered their confused looks when he intended to ride horses on their way back to Aurora. Zia even said that he was so slow just because he walks so little himself! He almost smacked her on the head at that time!

Be as it may, after many years in the south and surrounded by smelly soldiers, it was incredibly refreshing to hang around these three. May be Zia was right and he should look for a girl in Aurora? He was in his twenties after all.