I'll leave in 2 hours

"What is the emperor doing here?"

Aaron asked in disbelief at what he saw.

"Like us, the emperor was deceived by the prince and was locked up"

"But the emperor was almost as strong as my father or other generals, as is possible ..."

"That bastard didn't want to take any risks, so he poisoned his majesty."

*********

Mission complete - Explore the castle in the city

During your exploration for resources to start your territory, you have found a group of individuals in need, now it is up to you to convince them to join your cause

Additional objective accomplished.

Among the individuals there is a former emperor of an empire now destroyed, it is up to you to save him and make him join your cause or make sure that he does not pose any danger to your authority.

*********

"And as you can see, the emperor will not last long in this state."

"Why haven't you done anything?"

"{Sigh} what else we would like, but nothing we had at hand worked and it's not that we could get out of here, when we tried the only sword we had broken and neither Dominic nor I had recovered enough strength to damage it with our hands."

"Even if you couldn't break or bend the steel, couldn't you have broken the walls around the gate in those days?"

"And alert everything that is left in the city in the process?"

"... I ... {sigh} sorry ... It's just that ..."

"I understand your frustration"

Realizing that panicking won't help anything, Aaron took a breath to calm himself and after thinking about what he had at his disposal he looked at Donovan.

"I have a couple of silverleaf potions, do you think it helps to alleviate the poison?"

"Unfortunately I doubt it, the poison is too powerful, as you said, the emperor had almost the same strength as your father so to neutralize it something more powerful is needed"

Hearing that, Aaron again looked at the emperor and was lost in thought.

[There is nothing we can do? ... What can I do? ... Think Aaron, what would father do? ... Wait, father, in his study he had several medicines and emergency potions, maybe he has a more powerful antidote ]

With the opportunity to save the emperor present, Aaron got up and without wasting any more time, he headed for the exit causing Donovan's surprise.

"Where are you going?"

"I will go to the top of the castle, despite the castle being destroyed, it remains mostly standing, so my father's study must still be in good condition"

"I see then ..."

"That's right, I hope to find an antidote"

"Yes, the duke liked collecting things in his study, I'll leave Dominic in charge and accompany you, then ..."

"No, I will go alone"

"It is too dangerous, we do not know what may haunt the castle"

"And that's why I need to go alone, you said it yourself, everyone here is hungry and tired so it would be difficult for them to keep up"

"So we would just delay you right?"

"Basically, if they were in good condition, Dominic would have been enough to stop me when I opened the cells, but they needed to cooperate to attack me."

Finishing that, Aaron pulled out a couple of rations from his inventory and handed them to Donovan.

"Leaving that aside, first you have to give the others something to eat so that they regain their strength while I go for the antidote"

"Understood, I will prepare the boys and once you return we will plan how to get out of here"

"Good"

"And Aaron"

"?"

"Be careful boy"

"I know…"

After that they returned to the corridor where the rest of the knights were and after distributing the rations, Aaron headed to the surface

[Well boy it turned out better than I expected]

[It's not like they have more options, besides the sword helped]

Aaron thought as he put the sword in his inventory and pulled out a torch as he traveled the corridors of the castle dungeon.

Reaching the surface, Aaron extinguished the torch and advancing close to the wall entered the internal corridors of the castle, which allowed him to reach the central part of the castle, which had stairs exclusively for the servants.

Once on the second floor, Aaron stepped out into the main hallway of the north wing and heard a light wind blowing through the broken windows at the end of the hallway.

[It seems that the beasts did not get to enter this part of the castle and what caused the most damage was the fire ...]

Remembering that this was not the time, Aaron quickly approached his father's study and after looking at the doors for a few seconds, he slowly opened them avoiding making any noise.

After entering and locking the door Aaron looked around and despite being in a desolate and cluttered room, he was able to relax a bit.

"It seems that the fire did not reach this place, boy"

"Yes, I understand that mother, had placed some circuits with magic crystals to isolate this place"

Aaron said as he approached the large desk that had several documents on it.

Knowing that every second counted, Aaron searched on his father's desk without finding anything powerful enough to aid the emperor.

Seeing this, Aaron sat for a second and remembered that his father had shown him a secret room that his grandfather had built and that he kept important things in it, so without wasting time Aaron removed one of the shelves allowing him to enter a small room.

In this were several documents, coins and potions that after reviewing them, Aaron found an elixir which should be powerful enough to save the emperor.

[Boy, I know you are good and all but you will really spend those rare medicines on that old man, even if he recovers from the poison it will have weakened him to the point of a normal person and it is not that you find yourself in a situation where those positions cannot be of any use.]

"It's what I have to do Hal"

[{Sigh} I don't understand ... Well, whatever makes you happy boy, anyway, if you find yourself in a situation where you really need that elixir and antidotes I doubt you'll have time to use them]

"Thanks for the cheering"

[You're welcome]

"..."

Checking again that there was nothing lurking, Aaron returned to the dungeon stopping at the barracks.

[Hey Hal]

[What 's up boy?]

"Do you think it is a good idea to give the knights some weapons before they leave the prison?"

[You say it for your inventory?]

"Yes… Until now, storage magic was only found in some relics that they brought from the continent of ashes when our ancestors escaped during the second void invasion… You saw how they were when we met, I'm afraid if I now show my inventory to them. .. "

[But that Donovan didn't say anything when you materialized your sword, didn't he?]

"He didn't do it out of surprise, but I could see the suspicion in his eyes grow when I handed him the rations."

[You like to look into people's eyes a lot, don't you?]

"Hal, I'm serious ..."

[You are thinking about it too much, boy you gave yourself the answer, take any object you have, your necklace for example and say that it is a relic]

"It will work?"

[I don't know, but let's not waste time anymore, take what you need and let's move on, that that torch and the emperor won't last forever]

After that, Aaron hurried and after taking enough equipment for the rest of the knights, he went to the cells where after identifying himself so as not to alarm Dominic who was standing guard.

After entering the prison, Aaron could see Donovan talking with the rest of the knights and Dilan who, seeing Aaron, moved away from the rest to sharpen his sword without taking his eyes off Aaron.

"Aaron you're back, how was it? Was there any danger? Did you find something?"

"There was no beast or demon that I could hear and I found a couple of antidotes and an elixir in my father's study."

Saying that, Aaron took out the elixir from his inventory and gave it to Donovan who after verifying it gave it to the emperor who after a few minutes began to relax.

Seeing that the emperor's life was out of danger, Donovan relaxed and after leaving the cell he called the rest of the knights to whom Aaron had been giving the equipment he had collected.

Seeing that, Donovan showed clear doubt but let it pass however a dangerous glint appeared in Dilan's eyes.

After handing over the last sword Aaron leaned over to pick up the remaining gear but sensed something was wrong when he heard the knights get shocked.

"Dilan stop-"

Without giving Donovan time to stop him, Dilan charged Aaron with his broken sword and when it was about to pierce Aaron, he materialized on his back a shield that he took from his inventory avoiding the blow and taking advantage of the momentum, Aaron leaped forward and after rolling he stood on guard as he lifted another stone pillar that knocked Dilan to the ground.

Confused, the knights were on guard, not knowing who to defend to which Donovan and Dominic quickly intervened and made sure Dilan was okay.

"What does this mean?"

Aaron said looking at Donovan who after making sure that Dilan was not injured looked at Aaron and replied

"Just in case, we planned to ask a few things"

"And that's why he almost stabbed m, so that you could question me?"

Aaron said annoyed as he stood guard looking at the rest of the knights who did not know how to respond.

"The idea at first was to immobilize you and find out who you really were, but after helping us we had decided to take a less aggressive approach, unfortunately Dilan was too impulsive"

"Who am I really? By Eri! I'm Aaron, Aaron Froststar, if even after all the time I spent training with all of you and everything I did, you are not able to recognize me and still doubt me, why the hell am I still here risking my life for all of you?!"

Aaron said enraged and saddened by the attitude of the knights that he considered the closest to a family that he had left on this continent.

"Boy, it's for our safety, if it's really you nothing would happen, but I can't risk everyone here and more showing that ability of yours"

"My skill? And is that why he almost stabbed me? "

"As I told you, that ability to store things is only possessed by a few races of demons and the chosen ones and clearly you are not a chosen one, besides I already told you, we only wanted to immobilize you"

"Canmore, just look at the shield, if that hadn't stopped the sword by now I'd be practically dead and are you telling me to take it easy and pass it off as a little accident?"

"..."

"And as you should already know, there are more things that allow you to store objects"

Aaron said as he took out his necklace from his clothes and after lifting it where they could see it, he dropped a couple of rations some bows and some bundles of arrows on the ground, after that he just turned around and started walking towards the exit of the prison.

"Eat and get ready, whether you want to go out with me or on your own, I'll leave in 2 hours"

"Aaron..."

Donovan said which caused Aaron to stop but didn't bother to look back.

"How can we be sure that this is indeed a storage relic? ..."

To which after those words and a couple of seconds of silence Dominic's voice was heard

"That necklace is indeed a relic, it was from Madam Sara and I can assure you it's the same"

Hearing that, all the knights looked at Aaron who had already started walking again without saying anything until he was lost in the darkness between the cells.

"I will go and talk to him..."

To be continued…

…

*********

Ember Guardian System

User: Aaron Froststar

Race: Human (86%)

---------

{Status}

LV: 7

XP: 158/769

SP: 0

HP: 130/132

MP: 36/43

STR: 17

AGI: 20

DEX: 22

CON:11

INT: 19

WIS:19

CHA: 19

---------