A month has passed since Al’s first date with Natalie. He spent the last month mostly inside of the Inn, leaving only to go buy some nesscisity or to pay a quick visit to the orphanage. The few times he went outside he heard about the war and how it seems a large scale battle was in place. The Northern Kingdom’s King, King Richard, was planning to march southwest to siege the Western Kingdom’s castle of Turrim, a strategic location between the two kingdom. Rumors were that the King was going to lead an army of over 100,000 strong and was going to also send the Three Maidens.

With his arm nearly fully recover, and hearing that the Three Maidens were leaving Trisdia, Al decide he would be able to resume his job as an adventurer. He would not be able to fight strong monsters, but he would still be able to take on small monsters like goblins and do gathering quests. He got ready and left the inn to head over to the Guild Hall. Once inside the Guild Hall, he walked over to the quest board and started searching for a quest he could do. While searching someone tapped him on the shoulder. “Al?”

Al turns to see a familiar face he hasn’t seen since his promotion test. “It is you. How you been?” Darretta said with a smile. “Hey. I’ve been good. Spent some time off to recover from some injuries.” Al replied. Darretta then showed a really proud expression while revealing a Iron badge pinned onto her vest, waiting for Al’s response. “Oh, wow. When did this happen?” Al asked, knowing she was waiting for him to ask about it. “Oh this? It happened last week. I passed Kreyg’s test and earned the promotion.” “That’s great. Congratulations.” “So what about you? Have you been promoted too?” “No not yet. I haven’t asked for another promotion test yet since I’m still recovering. At the moment I can only do simple quests.” “Oh really? Then do you want to join me in doing some quests?”

“What quest are you doing? Just so you know, I won’t be able to help you do fights.” Al told Darretta. “That’s fine. I’ll do the fights, I just need you to boost me.” she explains. “I’m on a quest to search for some bandits and kill or capture them. Seems they have been robbing merchants on the Eastern road.” Hearing about the bandits on the Eastern road reminds Al about running into a group of bandits there before and was rescue by Carne. “Don’t the guards usually handle bandits?” Al ask. “What do you mean? You haven’t heard? The King is planning a large scale siege, and the majority of the guards here are getting ready to march. There aren’t enough guards to handle the bandits, so it had been pushed to us adventurers.”

“The guards are leaving? How many of them?” Al asked. “I think only about a hundred of them are staying. The rest are suppose to march later today.” Darretta answered. “They were waiting for the three maidens to get ready.” “The three maidens are still here?!” Al asked in a surprised shout. “Well, yeah. Seems like the Shield Maiden was looking for something, but can’t find it so she finally gave up on it and agreed to march.” She was searching for me. Good thing I listen to Death and mostly stayed at the Inn.

“I can join you, but, again I will mostly stay back and provide support.” Al told Darretta. “That’s fine with me. You can just watch as I heroically kill the bandits.” Darretta replied. “When are we heading out? I will need to go prepare some items for myself.” “We can go tomorrow morning and take a look through the forest for the bandits.” “Ok. That sounds good. I’ll use today to go prepare for the quest.” “Ok. You do that. I will wait for you tomorrow at the East Gate.” Darretta waved bye and ran out the guild hall.

I should visit Gendrol at his forge first. He’s closer, but he’s near the South gate where the soldiers are gathering. Although I won’t be doing much fighting, I would still like him to give my weapons a quick look for damage. I highly doubt I would run into them, especially the Shield Maiden. Al decided he would take the chance of running into the Three Maidens and headed towards Gendrol’s forge. When he got there, he saw a soldier talking to Gendrol in front of his forge.

Al walks towards the soldier and Gendrol. Gendrol turns and sees Al. “Heya lad!.” Gendrol greeted. “Where have you been? I haven’t seen you in awhile.” “Good morning Gendrol. I was just recovering from my injuries.” “What? Al. you were injured? Does Natalie know?” The solder asked. Upon closer inspection, turns out the soldier was Kolen. He wasn’t wearing his usual guard armor, instead wearing a soldier’s armor, making him unrecognizable to Al. “Ah, yeah. I got injured in my last quest so I spent some time to recover. Natalie already knows.” “Ah ok. Be careful out there. There’s been a lot of bandits in the area and they would not hesitate to attack an injured person.”

“So, what are you doing Kolen?” Al asked. “I was order to get some more weapons and armor for the battle against the Western Kingdom, so I came by here to buy some.” Kolen answered. “Now? I thought you guys were marching today? And you are also going?” “It is a bit last minute. And yeah, all captains and above are leaving for the battle. The governor is also leaving for the battle.” “What? Who’s going to govern the city if he leaves?” Gendrol asked. “The noble that moved in from the capitol awhile back. Seems he was really sent here to govern in place of the current governor.” Kolen answered. “Anyways, I should get going. Sir Gendrol, please send what you can to the South Gate as soon as you can. We are marching at midday.” “Aye lad. I’ll have some of my assistant send them over soon. Thank you for your purchase.” Al and Gendrol waved bye to Kolen as he was leaving. “I finally found you!”

Al turns around and sees the Shield Maiden with her sword already drawn. Before he could react she charges at him and thrust her sword at Al. In an instant, Kolen had pushed Al aside and knocked her sword to the side with his spear. “What is the meaning of this Shield Maiden?” Kolen asked. “Get out of my way soldier! I will destroy all evil I see in front of me!” The Shield Maiden then takes a quick side step towards Al and thrust her sword once again. Al jumps back to dodge the attack. She gets ready to attack Al again when Kolen extends his spear to block her. “Why do you get in my way?!” she hollered at Kolen. “It is my duty to protect the citizens living here. Even if it is you Shield Maiden, I will do my best to protect them.” “Then I will kill you first!”

The Shield Maiden then switches target from Al to Kolen. “Sweeping Swallow!” She thrusted multiple quick strikes at Kolen. He dodges most of them and deflect the last few. She was clearly getting anger by being stopped by a random soldier and even more angered by the fact she can’t land a blow on him. Her attacks sped up faster and they were getting more wild, hitting their surroundings. She destroyed a few of Gendrol’s counter and barrels he had put out in front, scattering his weapons he had out on displayed. “Hey! What are you doing you maniac?!” Gendrol shouted, but he was ignored.

The Shield Maiden has had enough of the soldier. She takes a leap back and raised her shield. “Have you decided to stop this madness?” Kolen asked, lowering his spear. Her shield started flashing. Al had a really bad feeling from this. “Kolen watch out!” he shouted. Kolen turns to look at Al in confusion. “What?” Kolen asked. And in the next instant, a large beam blasted towards Kolen from the Shield Maiden’s shield. Using his spear, Kolen picked up a nearby large shield that was knocked over near him from the Shield Maiden’s earlier rampage. He used the shield to try and block the beam, but the impact was too strong that it sent him flying.

Kolen flipped while he was sent flying and landed on his feet, but the impact was strong enough that even though he had landed, he skidded across the stone floor a few feet before coming to a stop. He looks up to see that the Shield Maiden had switch target back to Al. She lunged at Al, ready to pierce his heart from the back with her sword. Kolen didn’t hesitate and threw his spear in between the two and blocked her path. She stopped and jumped back just right before the spear landed. “Shield Maiden! Just because you are beautiful, it doesn’t mean you attack random people in the street! Please stop!” Kolen shouted as he run towards them. “S-Shut up! I know I am not as pretty as my two sister! Don’t try and stop me using flattery!” she shouted back, but had also seemingly had stopped trying to attack Al, giving Kolen time to reach them.

“Please, mighty beautiful Shield Maiden, please stop trying to harm the citizens under my protection. Such atrocities shouldn’t be committed by pretty ladies like you.” Kolen said as Al just look at him with a rather sour and disgusted face. The hell is this fool saying in the middle of battle. The Shield Maiden turns her face away. “Fine. As a sign of respect to a strong fighter that was able to deflect my attacks, I will stop here.” she says while her face still turned away. “But know this. Next time I see him outside of the city, I will kill him.” She turns away and walked off towards the South Gate.

“I… I can’t believe that your stupid flattery worked…” Al mumbled. “What do you mean? A handsome man like myself can get even the most psychotic woman to calm down.” Kolen replied. “What do you mean handsome? You always cover your face with your helmet. I don’t even remember how you look. The only reason I know it’s you is because of your aura of stupidity.” “What? Why are you so mean to me even though I just saved you?” Kolen said as he pretend to start crying into his hands. “I would’ve been fine by myself.” “I’m going to tell my sister you were mean to me!” Kolen shouted as he runs off after the Shield Maiden towards the South Gate. “W-wait! Don’t say anything to Natalie you idiot!” But Kolen was already too far.

“Well… that was interesting to watch.” Gendrol said as he approach Al. “I’m sorry about your displays.” Al said apologetically. “Don’t mind it lad. It wasn’t your fault. But I am surprised a common soldier was able to hold the Shield Maiden off like that.” “Well, that was Kolen. Although he is a stupid flirt, he is still a captain of the guards.” “What, really? He is a captain? Didn’t realize I was speaking to a noble.” “Kolen isn’t a noble. He’s a commoner like us. In fact, he’s from the same village as me.” “Eh? Really? Wow… A commoner captain? Interesting. Guess he was skillful enough the higher ups had no choice but to promote him to a captain. He looks fairly young too.” “He is. He’s only a few years older than me. And he is really strong… if only he hadn’t been drafted back then… then maybe… no… nevermind…” Gendrol could sense that Al was thinking about his village. “Don’t think too much about it lad.” “I know. There was nothing that could’ve been done. Don’t worry. I don’t blame him for not being there during the raid on my village.”

“Well then lad, did you need something from me? Seeing that you are here for the first time in awhile.” Gendrol asked as he started to pick up his items that are scattered about on the ground. Al helps him pick up the items and placed them on the undamaged counter. “Yeah, I am about to go on a quest and came to see if you had fix my weapon and chestplate yet.” “Oh those? Yeah they are done and are just sitting in the back. Hold on for a sec.” Gendrol walks into the back and soon came back out. “Here lad. Good as new. I also worked a little extra on the dagger. Seemed it was covered in some kind of acid for a while, and it had weaken the blade, so I reforged it. The breastplate itself didn’t take as long.” “Thank you Gendrol. How much will it cost?” “Since it was just some small repairs, 2 gold coins sounds about right.” Al reaches into his coin bag, and pulls out 3 gold coins. “The extra coin is an apology about your store front. I didn’t do it, but I was the reason it happened.” “Don’t worry about it too much lad. These happens once in awhile.” Gendrol hands Al back the extra coin.

“By the way lad. Have you tried out the leg guard I gave you yet?” Gendrol asked. “Only a little. It seems like it could protect my legs, but it hinders movement. I’ve only used it inside the inn, and haven’t taken it into battle yet.” Al replied. “Ah ok. Well, do me a favor and take it with you on this quest you are about to go on. Let me know if I need to change anything about it later when you come back. If you do this for me, then you can keep it.” “Yeah. Sure. It sounds good to me.” Al waved bye to Gendrol and then left Gendrol’s forge.

Al had bought some potions and other items he needed from Evistin and decided to go visit the orphanage to let Natalie know that he was going to go on a quest the following day. He reaches the orphanage and peeks in again. “You know… You really ought to stop doing that. It makes you look a creep and a pervert.” Al turns and sees Ammalinde again holding bags in both hands. “Ah… sorry… let me help you with that.” Al extends his hand out to her. Seeing that both his arms are fine now, Ammalinde hands both the bag to Al, and walks in. “Just place it in the same spot as last time. I need to go check on the kids.”

Al walks inside the kitchen and place the bags on the counter. He goes up the stairs and knocks on Carne’s door to see if he was inside. “Dad’s not here.” Ammalinde said as she walked out of one of the room. “He won’t be back for a few days. He left for Sentros to visit my aunt. Something about picking up more kids.” “Has there been another attack?” “No. not this time. Seems the war was getting worst. The last battle killed a lot of soldiers on both sides. It left a few of the soldiers kids as orphans.” She said as she reached the stairs. “It’s probably why the King wants to land a crushing blow to the Western Kingdom and then sue for peace.” “That… I hope that works. This war is dragging out for too long.” Ammalinde nodded and walked down.

Al walks back outside. “Al?” A small voice called out. Al looked to the side of the building and sees Evie poking her head out of the corner. “Hi Evie.” Al waves her over. She runs over and hugs Al. “Welcome back.” She said in a quiet voice. “Evie, what’s wrong?” Al asked, concerned that she was not her usual cheerful self. “Evie is scarred. There’s a strange man who keeps coming by and peeking in at us when we play since grampa left. Ammanalinde can’t find him when we tell her.” Al got angry when he heard this. “Has he come by today?” “No. Evie hasn’t seen him today. But he comes everyday when its play time in the yard.” I will kill the bastard that scares the kids. “Don’t worry Evie. I’m here. I will catch him.” “Thank you Al. I knew I can count on you!” Evie hugs Al harder, and now seems a little more cheerful.

Al had decided to remain at the orphanage. At least until after playtime. He stood in front of the gate since that was where Evie said that man peeks in from. He had told Evie to point at the man when she sees him. The kids were all playing around like normal until Evie stopped playing and pointed at the gate. Al saw and reacted quickly. He had casted Rune of Agility on himself earlier so he quickly reached the other side of the gate and spotted a man who had climbed over the wall and was peeking inside. Al runs and grabs him and throws him on the ground.

“Ow! What are you doing you lunatic?!” The man shouted. The man was well dressed and quite young. He had blonde wavy hair and it was tied into a ponytail. Al could tell instantly that the man was a noble. “Who are you? What are you doing here?” Al asked. The man got up and brushed himself off. “How rude! Shouldn’t one introduce himself first before asking for someone’s name?” “I don’t need manners for someone who can pose a danger for the kids here at the orphanage.” Just as Al finish that sentence, a bunch of sword was then pointed at his neck. He was surrounded by guards. “Hmph. I am Jedin Ebonblade. The acting governor of this city.”