The same eyes I had
Surprised and glad to see familiar faces, Aaron relaxed and lowered the dagger, which made the knights calm a bit.
Seeing that, Aaron approached slowly to avoid any further suspicion, but unfortunately when he was a couple of meters from them, the young knight, having recovered took his sword and jumped on Aaron
Reacting to the sudden attack, Aaron created a stone pillar which hit the young knight, sending him rolling and causing the rest of the knights to stand on guard again.
"Everyone calm down, Marc, Tom, take Dilan inside and check if he's injured, Dominic watch that nothing comes from the upper floor, and you boy, can you tell me how the hell you got here"
Donovan said, looking suspiciously at Aaron.
"Uncle Donovan, I'm glad you're okay"
Aaron said as he advanced towards Donovan.
Seeing Aaron approaching, Donovan got on guard and said "Slow down, answer my question first" causing Aaron to be surprised at Donovan's reaction.
[Don't worry boy, It's normal, we don't know why they happened, and don't tell me it's not uncommon to find a young man in the castle dungeon of a ruined city]
Understanding the reason why the knights were so nervous, Aaron sighed, put his dagger away, and began to speak.
"Uncle Donovan, it's me, Aaron"
"I know you look like Aaron but what I asked is how you got here"
Seeing that it would come to nothing, Aaron answered how his father had sent him to Caya along with some chosen ones, how they had been ambushed, forced to abandon the ship, and travel through the forest for a week.
He told him how the chosen ones had disappeared when they reached Caya and that thinking it was his best chance of finding someone, he entered the castle from the sewer, where he ended up being attacked by one of the castle's dogs.
Hearing his story and not feeling anything strange from Aaron, Donovan sighed and after one last look he turned around and started walking
"Okay come in, Dominic, Oliver, come back and watch the door in case any more beasts show up"
Saying that, he took the torch from the ground and lighting a candle that he had on his waist he returned the torch to Dominic and entered the prison.
"Suppose I believe you and that you managed to get here with your luck, now tell me what do you plan to do?"
Donovan entered the guards' room and after sitting down, he blew out the candle, leaving only the moonlight filtering from a ceiling grid to illuminate the room.
"Honestly, I'm not sure, I was hoping to find more people in the city after that I planned to go to a relatively safe place where we could organize ourselves"
"I see ... I guess that's normal, considering that there is no way to cross the ocean with only a handful of ships, one has to see how to survive until the rest return ... heh what nonsense"
"There is still a chance to survive"
"Do you even understand our situation boy? ... Abandoned and scattered, with only Angela knows how many demons there are roaming the continent and with no way to escape ... and yet you say there is a chance to survive?"
"There is, Eri has not abandoned us yet"
Aaron said looking Donovan straight in the eye, allowing Donovan to see a fire in Aaron's eyes.
"And I still haven't given up"
"Aaron"
"Now tell me Donovan Canmore"
Aaron yelled as he materialized the Frozen edge from his inventory, which reflected the moonlight from the room, and pointed it at Donovan.
"Will you follow me as you followed my father to protect our people, our people or you will remain without doing anything regretting yourself while the rest of the world suffers"
Seeing the sword that was the symbol of the Froststar house and the shadow of the former duke reflected in Aaron, Donovan stood up and hitting his chest replied
"¡Yes!"
"Well, now get up, we still have things to discuss, first tell me how is it that the Frost lions ended up locked under the castle"
"We ended up locked up due to your brother and the prince set us up, after the first sightings of the demonic beasts they insisted that we should leave immediately "
"A couple of soldiers agreed with them but most of us refused. Under my command and Dominic's, we defended the city, but that same night, a couple of knights of the order called me along with the rest of us who were here and drugged us. "
"When we woke up, we were already locked up and that's when your brother came to make fun of us, how nothing would have happened to us if we had listened to him and followed his orders"
"After that, the last thing I heard is that the next morning saying that we had left to delay the demonic horde, your brother and the prince made the fleet sail early"
Donovan said as he looked at Aaron who just listened without saying anything, after several seconds of silence, Donovan spoke.
"By the way, there is something you should see"
"Okay, just give me a minute alone, I need to think"
"No problem, I'll be out"
After that, as Donovan lit the candle and left the room, Aaron sat down and thought about everything he had heard.
"Boy, what your brother or that prince did was not your fault"
"Isn't it? ... I'm not so sure about it Hal ... maybe if we hadn't abandoned the ship, we would have been able to reach Caya just to prevent the fleet from sailing."
Aaron whispered as he gazed at his reflection on the Frozen Edge.
"{Sigh} Whatever makes you happy boy ... changing the subject, what happened to Uncle Donovan, you changed so much that I barely recognized you"
"I guess so, it's just… seeing his gaze, his hopeless and the self-blame in his eyes, thinking that they were alone, that even the gods had abandoned him…Those eyes were the same eyes that I saw reflected on this sword when I found out about my father's death…"
Aaron said as he looked up and watched the night sky through the skylight.
"When I looked at him I saw myself reflected and I couldn't bear it ..."
"Well, at least you motivated him after your speech ... What do you plan to do now?"
"I hope to convince the rest and go back to the hill, from there I'll figure out what to do"
After that, Aaron got up and left the room following Donovan to the back of the prison, where he could see two knights guarding a cell, which after greeting Donovan and giving Aaron a look, they let them pass.
On the cell, a man was lying on several blankets
"It can't be possible ... Donovan this ..."
"It is"
Staring at Donovan in disbelief, Aaron was only able to think of one thing
"What is the emperor doing here !?"
To be continued…
...
*********
Ember Guardian System
User: Aaron Froststar
Race: Human (78%)
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{Status}
LV: 7
XP: 158/769
SP: 15
HP: 132/132
MP: 34/43
STR: 17
AGI: 20
DEX: 22
CON:11
INT: 19
WIS:19
CHA: 19
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{Titles}
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Achievements:
---------
{Temporal status}
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{Skills}
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{Passives}
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{Equipment}
Cloth undergarments - Common - Defense +1
Leather Pants - Uncommon - Defense +4:
Gambeson - Common - Defense +6:
Iron Dagger - Common - Attack + 5
Star Pendant (Right Half) - Epic - Charisma +5, WIS +5:
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{Inventory}
+Beta test bundle:
-Small HP potions x 5
-Small MP potions x 5
-Silver x 1
+Tent x 2 -> x 1
+ Iron stewpot x 1
+ Frozen Edge (Long Sword) - Legendary (Awakening 0%) - Attack +30:
+ Animal Fur x 4 -> x 7
+ Rations x 24 -> x 42
+ Flint x 2 -> x 1
+ Torch x 3 - 30 min
+ Oil flask x 5
+...
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Servants:
Name: Luna
...
---------
{Forums}
---------
{E0i&}
*********