"Excuse me fellows. Is the man called Ice here? I'd like to speak with him for a moment."

A dignified looking young man was standing near the entrance of the training grounds complete with tough faced guards on either side of him. He was looking around the place, searching for Ice.

He was the son of the prince reagent and apparent heir to the throne, prince Ricard Falwynd Ricksvale.

The knights looked at each other with questioning gazes. They were curious about the reason for the sudden visit.

***

"Eh?! Prince Ricard is looking for me? Whatever for?" Ice inquired in a slightly high pitched tone.

The page shook his head and told him he also had no idea and he just came to get Ice.

Ice scratched his head, perplexed. He decided to just meet with the prince to find out what this was all about.

He sincerely hoped it wasn't something ridiculous like prince Ricard actually being a Siscon and him being challenged to a duel for Thelma's affection or anything to that effect.

***

"So you're Ice huh? Not bad. And it seems you train with the knights on a regular basis as well. Above average looks and the sincere hard working type huh... No wonder sis has a crush on you."

Prince Ricard went over and suddenly started to scrutinize Ice as soon as he showed up. They were currently within the receiving area of the prince's private quarters. There didn't seem to be any apparent hostility coming from him.

His guards were another story though. They had 'Make one stupid move and you're dead.' faces on them. Ice got goosebumps from their fierce gazes. Prince Ricard continued to check him out nonchalantly, not noticing the strained atmosphere at all.

"Um... forgive me if this sounds rude your highness, but... uh... what exactly did you want to meet me for?" Ice asked.

"Huh? Oh yes, of course. I was just curious about what kind of man made my tomboy of a sister suddenly act all girly so I checked you out a bit. But that's not really why I wanted to meet you."

Prince Ricard moved his gaze towards his guards and gestured for them to leave their posts. They weren't pleased with the idea and attempted to protest.

"Right now, I need to speak with this man in private. He's my sister's benefactor so there's no cause for concern. Anyway, just step outside for a bit. We won't take long."

The prince Ricard was adamant and grandly stared the guards down. He really did fit the image of a proud noble. Eventually, the guards were forced to capitulate on the condition that they be allowed to wait just outside the room. Prince Ricard agreed but warned them not to eavesdrop and the matter was settled.

After the guards left, prince Ricard turned his attention to Ice once more with a resolute gaze.

"So then, what is it you want from me your highness?" Ice inquired; his curiosity piqued.

"Mm. I'll make this brief. I am given to believe that you've stayed with the Seyramour family for a time before you came here."

Ice nodded in the affirmative.

"Hm. Then you have already come to know of the members of captain Seyramours family, including her siblings, correct?" prince Ricard inquired further.

"Yes. I've met her parents and both her siblings."

"Mm. Then you've already met Ein and miss Veenah... Hmm..."

Prince Ricard grew silent for a short while. He then gave Ice a look filled with burning determination and placed an object on Ice's palm.

"Eh?"

Ice was surprised and looked at the object given to him. It was a small, hexagonal contraption with a clear crystal imbedded in its center.

"It's a portable mana-vision camera that also takes still shots." prince Ricard explained.

"Uhuh..."

Ice was confused further.

"Uh, well... this is nice and all but... what exactly am I supposed to do with this your highness?" he asked in increasing bewilderment.

"You see mister Ice... I have dear wish I want to fulfill... And you might be the key to finally getting that wish to come true." prince Ricard replied in a solemn tone.

"And what is this wish of yours your highness?"

"Mm... My dream... is to finally complete my collection. To get that final elusive shot...

OF MISS VEENAH BATHING NAKED IN A HOT SPRING!!! (preferably with decent steam effects)."

Ice instantly froze over while sporting a blank look. The prince didn't notice at all and continued explaining in a riled up tone.

"I have painstakingly gathered shots of the wonderful Miss Veenah from almost all possible angles in almost all possible backgrounds in a wide variety of poses, expressions and outfits. Yet only this hot spring shot eludes me.

Yes, it eludes me to no end. I have even enlisted the aid of my good friend, Ein Seyaramour. But even he found it difficult to breach the nearly impregnable defenses of the Maleena hot springs.

But then, hope dawned upon me. Reliable sources have reported that you have actually succeeded in infiltrating that sacred sanctum.

You may have not succeeded in gazing upon paradise due to unforseen circumstances. Yet you did not give up and burst into the room of the famous Lady Melva Hollcroft and have attained the reward of being sandwiched within her bountiful bossom!

Such bravery! Such tenacity! Thus, I have judged that you are the most suitable person to entrust my hopes and dreams to. There can be no one but you!"

Prince Ricard panted heavily after his impassioned speech and looked upon Ice with a face filled with hope and heartfelt admiration. Ice was at a loss about how to react.

"W-Why steam effects?"

That wasn't what he wanted to ask. But Ice had already been taken by the increasingly weird atmosphere, and thus, his thought processes have currently slowed down to a crawl.

"Hm? Oh, well that's because of personal taste. I believe that scene would be more profound (and titillating) than just bare skin. It's art mister Ice. Capturing the beauty and grandness of creation!"

Ice could only mechanically nod.

"Great! Then I shall leave that camera with you. I pray for your success mister Ice. If you succeed in doing this for me, then I shall consider you a lifelong friend and soul brother.

I am also not in a hurry. Take your time and take the perfect shot. I'm counting on you."

Ice was ultimately unable to get a word in edgewise and later on, worried about the prince's request to no end.

***

"___Bahahahaha! That prince Ricard sure was a piece of work eh kid? I like him."

Ibex laughed unsparingly after the meeting with the prince. He remained beside Ice the entire time but stayed still on the floor during the whole thing. But Ice was aware of his constant snickering after the prince opened the topic of stealth photography.

"___Just how beautiful is that young lady that a prince of a country got so taken with her and became a full blown stalker?" Ibex remarked in a bemused tone.

Ice thought back to his time with the Seyramours and found himself understanding the prince a bit. Sea's older sister Veenah truly was beautiful. In fact, the entire family had looks that could kill. As expected of the high spec family.

But becoming a fully fledged peeping tom and taking candid photos of her bathing was out of the question.

"___But maybe I can pull it off during next year's event..."

Ice shook his head frantically as he forced himself to extinguish the thought.

"___Gehehe. Miss Sea is already such a looker. I imagine her older sister will be quite a gorgeous woman as well. What do you say with entrusting that request to me?" Ibex exclaimed in a teasing manner.

"How the heck are you even going to do that? You got no arms." Ice retorted.

"When there's a will, there's a way!" Ibex replied with absolute conviction.

Ice could only shrug in exasperation and sigh.

He had missed the opportunity to refuse due to the prince's sincere gaze. But he really had to turn him down properly later on.

It would be hard to imagine what Mr. Alphonse would do if he ever found out. Ice still valued his life after all.

***

The pair walked along among the crowd in the central plaza of the city. They were headed towards the direction of the north gate, finally deciding to hunt in earnest after weeks spent training. They couldn't stay holed up in the city forever after all.

Ice had checked all of his equipment and items and put them in order. He felt that they did all they could for the time being and surviving from here on out depends on their tenacity, determination and luck. Unfortunately, Ice hasn't invested on Luk yet. But one can't expect everything to be perfect from the get go.

"___Now kid, the moment we encounter a hopeless situation, retreat immediately. Don't throw your life away. We could always go for a revenge match, but you can't do jack if you're dead." Ibex reminded. Ice promptly nodded.

"I know. I need to polish my sense of danger more. I want to be able to properly judge the level of risk involved in a situation and act accordingly. I'm still fairly new to this stuff so I'm counting on you to cover for my shortcomings."

"___I know kid. Leave it to me." Ibex assured Ice.

They were now beside the central fountains. Suddenly, something caught Ibex's attention and as he turned to warn Ice...

"?!"

Ice immediately halted his steps. Something entered the periphery of his vision. It was headed straight for him. He hurriedly sidestepped to dodge the incoming object. It struck the ground with surprising force moments later.

It was a small crossbow bolt. The Kinetic Vision ability the Freerunning Skill granted had proven its worth. Ice thought he wouldn't have spotted the bolt as easily as he did without it.

Purple liquid burst out from the tip and stained the ground. Ice didn't know if it would be this obvious on Earth, but in an anime-like world, suspicious colored liquid that seeped out of a long, pointed object (Weapons of course. Get your minds out of the gutter.) had a high chance of being poison.

Ice raised his alertness to the max and surveyed his surroundings. Ibex scanned for threats as well. They kept moving towards the crowd in order not to give the assailants another clear shot.

But despite this, another bolt flew from a different direction and barely whizzed past them. An unfortunate bystander started writhing in pain and collapsed on the ground after being hit. The surrounding people were instantly thrown into a panic.

"What the hell?! They don't even care about involving other people huh." Ice exclaimed and gritted his teeth in anger.

"___It seems that way. What now? We could keep using people as shields to avoid attacks..."

"That could work. But I'm not that rotten. At least not yet. For now... RUN!"

The pair rushed out of the fountain area and went deeper into the city streets.

***

Ice and Ibex continued to run through the maze like passages of the cityscape. They have all but memorized the layout of the place and traversed it with ease even without consulting the minimap.

They couldn't fully shake off the attackers at first though. It seems they have also scouted and mapped the place considerably so escaping from their pursuit wasn't easy.

They couldn't split up either since Ibex had limited range. If he ends up separated from Ice for a prolonged period, it would result in forced recall. Since the Skill cool down was 20 minutes, Ice would end up without any back up for a while.

They finally lost their pursuers after much effort. Ice used the lull in the action to drink some potions and recover his HP. The poison wasn't debilitating and only decreased his HP by 5 per second so it didn't bother him much. Quick use of an antidote solved the annoyance fairly easily.

It only had that much effect on the person that was hit earlier because he had been a Unit. Ice could only hope he had been treated on time, since a couple of adventurers were also present at the scene.

The poison wasn't a big deal. But the accumulated damage from the crossbow bolts wasn't anything to scoff at. Crossbows tended to have lower damage and overall range compared to bows. And Ice had considerable defense for his level due to his equipment.

But seeing as the bolts shaved off about 15-30% of his HP every hit, Ice was convinced he was dealing with people who outleveled him by at least 10 to 20. And that was trouble.

He grimaced in frustration. He had avoided a majority of the bolts by effectively using cover, but more and more people kept popping up unexpectedly and got a few shots in on him. They had now identified at least ten pursuers. And there was no telling how many they actually were.

"Dammit! What's taking the authorities so long?!..."

Ice gritted his teeth as he looked through the gap in the wall of the building they were currently hiding in. Ibex stayed silent but threw Ice a critical gaze.

"___Kid..."

"What?!"

"___We can't hold out like this. Not if we remain passive. You know that."

"Tch..."

Ice bit his lip, drawing blood. They had shaken off their assailants but it was only a matter of time until they were found. But despite this, he had not made an initiative to retaliate.

He was actually buying time. He was counting on the city guards and knight squads to respond to the earlier commotion and rush to the scene. No matter how numerous their pursuers were, Ice thought they wouldn't dare take action against Ricksvale's authorities on their home turf and choose to retreat.

But the anticipated reinforcements didn't arrive. At least, not soon enough.

Ice knew they were headed for disaster if things were left as is. He already knew what Ibex wanted him to do.

He knew.

But he was still hesitant. He felt that if he took that first step, then there would be no turning back.

"___Kid!"

Ibex confronted Ice and stared at him with a challenging look.

"___You want to survive right? You want to win against all this absurdity and come back home right? Why the hell are you hesitating then?! I don't know what kind of values and beliefs you had before coming here. And frankly, I don't care.

THIS is your reality right now! And unless you get your act together, you're as good as dead!"

Ice was stunned for a moment after Ibex's admonishment. He closed his eyes and took a long, deep breath to steady his nerves. His eyes shone with resolve the moment he opened them next.

"You're right. I'm sorry."

"___As long as you understand."

Ice gripped the handle of his weapon - a newly acquired Stiletto - and prepared to counterattack.

***

A group of people stood silently on the roof of a tall building near the city center and observed the growing commotion below with impassive gazes.

It was the captains of Ricksvale's knight squads. A hawkish bespectacled man approached the young woman who stood near the edge of the roof and hailed her with a concerned tone.

"Captain Seyramour... Is this really alright? Letting this situation persist I mean. You know the one who's being targeted correct? I am given to believe that you quite favor him.

We've all agreed to adhere to your request for the time being. But if this were to go on, that young man will surely die."

The young woman, Captain Seabelle Seyramour of the Sybilwind knight squad, turned to face the man with a steely gaze.

"The efforts to deal with the resulting collateral damage and panic is proceeding smoothly correct? Then there's no more cause for concern Captain Gates. I've personally seen to Ice's training as well. He won't fall that easily to the likes of these garishly dressed clowns."

The man, Captain Hartman Gates of the Banefang knight squad, seemed unconvinced.

"But those are roughly more than twenty assailants. No matter how well trained you claim he is, that young man won't be able to hold out for long against such numbers, even if it does seem that they are complete amateurs."

Sea smiled sweetly - a stark contrast from her earlier harsh expression - and replied in a light tone.

"You misunderstand captain. I don't intend to leave the situation be for long. I just want Ice to go through a serious life or death encounter with actual people as opponents.

He needs to go through this in order for him to have a greater chance of surviving as an adventurer and pioneer for the sanctioned explorations to the uncharted lands. Just like he wanted."

"A pioneer you say?!" Captain Gates exclaimed in surprise.

"Yup. You should already know just how dangerous and cutthroat that world is. The strong eat the weak. That's all there is to it really. He needs to harden his resolve in order to live through something like that.

An opportunity to actually draw blood and kill people like this is also ideal. The attackers are reportedly a newly formed Assassins guild called the Bloody Ravens correct? Even if they're but second rate novices when it comes to the trade, they should have prepared themselves for the eventuality of death in missions like this. If not then they would be nothing more than trash. so there's no reason to hold back against them is there? I could not have asked for better opponents to let Ice grow.

It's because I like him that I'm doing all this. Do you find my methods unpleasant captain?"

Sea's smile was pure and free of any pretense. She truly did feel that way. Which made it all the more striking. Captain Gates could only laugh awkwardly and concede.

He had already felt it when she first made waves as the youngest to ever attain the right to vie for captain-ship of a knight squad using just absolute and overwhelming strength some years ago. But now, he had confirmed it once again.

This young woman, Seabelle Seyramour, daughter of the Mad Sword and the Puppeteer of Chaos, was truly extraordinary. And, when left unrestrained, was exceedingly dangerous as well.

"___This person was actually assigned as the leader of the princess' personal guard... Honestly... Her abilities may be top notch but... What could his majesty be thinking?..."

Captain Gates sighed as he watched the ensuing commotion develop with conflicted thoughts.

-Chapter 14- End