Chapter 5

After the great war, the Empire was divided into 5 lands, the Northland Warine, the Southland Marshforth, the Eastland Downbridge, the Westland Hurthend, and the middle of the empire, Runalia. Each of the lands had their own lord and was famous with many tales behind the land. Some were ferocious with only mythical creatures or beast around and some mixed with each other to learn how they could co-exist with the human.

And one of the lands that were utterly different tab the other four lands, had no single mythical beings in it due to its rule. That land stayed in the middle of the Empire, called Runalia. Runalia is regarded as the only place where humans live without mingling with other mythical beings. As long time before the Empire was even founded, the humans in Runalia feared other beings than humans and sorcerer. This fear ran down through their blood to the point that even until now they could never allow any beings to stay inside the land. Just as how humans react strongly to mythical beings, the Mythical beings also didn't want to intrude humans live and lived in their perspective lands.

In Runalia, there was a place where all humans would love to visit and that was Afgard. Other than its beauty and for being the main city of the Runalia, Afgard was best known for its slave and the black market. The patrons to the market weren't only sorcerers who searched for sacrifice, but also lustful nobles with the frightening hobby.

The town was wide in diameter and shielded with tall cobblestoned walls that circled the whole tone, guarding it against any invasion from another empire. All around the town was filled with houses and large buildings while in the middle of the path, shops, and trading stalls lifted the merriness.

On this day, the town was holding the Spring festival which was celebrated by making flower crowns to your head, giving it to your beloved as you dance around the bonfire. Near the water fountain, a man with a higher build than the other humans walked through the sea of people while humming the same tone that the choir children sang in the town's heart.

The man's whole body was covered in a somber black cloak and his face was shielded by a masquerade mask that had golden patterns around it. Even in such a simple black cloak and mask, it couldn't hide the nobility aura that surrounds the way he walked. Although it was a festival, no one could hold back their eyes from the strange person who was walking with a masquerade mask.

Strolling to his destination, the man couldn't care less about the people eyeing him and instead thought in his heart that his attire was normal enough. Next to him, a young man with a slightly different height with golden hair like gold strands had his emerald eyes shopping around the window. He had charming features and a sweetly seductive smile. Although he looked a little older than his age, the young man was still around seventeen in age. From time to time, he noticed some of the girls looking at him shyly and smiled sweetly while waving for a greet. After having a crowd gathering to them, the masked man had a slightly irritated expression in his face. Crowd and noisiness, it was the things that he dislikes the most. Unable to bear the crowd, he stepped fastly to have the young man who stopped to converse with the girl running toward him in haste. "Wait! Luke-"

The masked man turned his face and warned,

"Don't call me that here."

"Oh, I forgot that we are now undercover." The young man replied naively and saw him giving a stare of warning or perhaps a mocking glance that asked him how he could say such a thing here.

"I apologize." The young man replied with a grin, with a face that hasn't reflected on his blunder. The masked man didn't bother to chastised him for the matter and went again with his lazy steps.

Long after they walk the stone path, the young man who felt a little tired finally asked the masked man.

"We have got the rest of the things that we needed, where are you heading to now?"

"Well, somewhere I need to go shopping."

"Shopping? A hermit like you?" Even though the masked man was older than him and had a rather cold ambiance that would make him hard to approach, the young man had a friendly tone that didn't change to the age contrast of the people he talked to. Having an arrogance that couldn't be hated.

The man raised an eyebrow to his words. "I'm not a hermit. If I am, how could I walk beside you now? And, what are you doing here following me? I had enough babysitting you once."

"The church's order, they fear that you would do anything while going on. They put me here as a leash for you." The young man replied with a shrug of his shoulder.

"A leash." The masked man repeated sarcastically with a sneer.

"The church should know that if I want to, I could end them at any time I like. Even you, my dear little friend could never stop me." The haughty words coming from his lips wasn't a joke but rather the truth that he could do based on his whim. One who heard his words and know his identity would have the self lying on the ground prostrating in fear to plead for their lives. Yet the young man's devilish smile didn't change and seemed to have heard these words before from his mouth many times that the fright had lost its effect.

"Don't jest. If you are about to go berserk, I would rather be by your side and help you to see the end of the world rather than dying." The young man stopped at a fruit shop and exchange a bronze coin for a couple of apples before throwing one to the masked man who caught it in ease without looking back, making the young man to ask himself whether the masked man has an eye on the back of his head.

"Have you heard about the news sent by the faeries? Mike said that the faeries had just lost their queen." The young man veered the conversation.

Finally intrigued, the masked man gazed at the apple before throwing it back to the man while tapping his mask.

"I can't eat this with the mask on the way, Luke."

Luke shrugged his shoulder as he took the apple back and continued.

"But that's the first time I ever heard someone like the queen of faeries could die out of old age though. I thought they were eternal, like you."

"That's where you are wrong. I am not the King nor Queen of the faeries. Dying wouldn't matter much to me and I could never die." The man pointed.

"Yeah, yeah. I'm just surprised that they actually have a lifespan and thought that they were trying to hide her assassination, but who knows that she did actually die because of old age? What are you searching here, anyway?" Luke looked around at the street that gradually lessened from patrons. He found it odd, Runalia loved it luxuries but it was the first time for him to know there was a street that had fewer people, unlike how bustling it was in the street they walked before.

"Something." The man ambiguously replied and took a sharp turn which was instantly followed by Luke.

Seeing the very large statue in the middle of the alley where the masked man entered, his steps came to a halt immediately. Luke's eyes meditate around, examining the long and narrow alley which the masked man entered and exclaimed with wide eyes.

"What are you thinking of going in here?!"

"I think you knew that I'm here to shop, don't you?" The man replied without looking behind, continuing what he started to the dark and eerie alley.

Of course, Luke's knew that the man was going to buy something that he would arse himself to go far from Warine to Runalia, however, the post sign on the place, two lantern light standing still as a mark with a statue of a woman barely wearing any clothes and collar on both her neck and wrists, was enough to label what building was at the end of the alley. It was none other than the statue of a slave building that he once heard from rumors before. Although it was only a rumor, he was sure that even with one eye that the path was none other than the path to the slave building.

Luke ran up to catch the man's step and tried to halt his step by clutching to his cloak.

"No, I don't! Lord Mike, this is the path to slave auction building! You're not supposed to enter here!"

Ian scoffed at the child, walking leisurely in ease no matter how hard the young man tried to put all his weight to pull him down.

"What's the matter with me entering here? There's something I need to buy in dire."

"Buy in dire? The church had been making trouble by sniffing around each of your steps. What would happen if they know you are buying a slave for a sacrifice? Ah God! Please stop walking, milord!" Luke grabbed and pulled, taking the hem into a bundle to pull the cloak with all his might, but it seemed his determination wasn't enough to stop Ian.

"And who told you I'm here to buy a sacrifice? I have enough power and do not need one at the moment. I'm going to buy something different." Mike replied as he pushed his way through the front entrance of the auction building.

Luke found it odd for him who had everything within his palm wanting something and asked carefully,

"T- Then… What are you buying here?"

Mike hummed teasingly not replying to anything as he turned his face to the manager who wrote down his name in the attendance book. Casting aside his black cloak to the servants who had opened the beaded curtain to the auction hall, Mike turned his face with a grin beneath the mask. The grin itself was beautiful to his charming fair skin yet under the masquerade mask that had a pattern of a crying person with droplets of golden tears, the grin looked ominous to the golden-haired young man.