Escape from the city
After leaving the prisos Aaron leaned against the wall next to the door and after sitting down he could only sigh.
Before he was able to organize his thoughts he heard a couple of steps approaching him.
After looking at who was approaching, he could make out Dominic's silhouette thanks to the light that Donovan and the rest of the knights still kept inside the cells, seeing that it was only him Aaron returned his gaze to the passage where the stairs were and spoke .
"Dominic, thanks for the support..."
"No problem kid, but, now I need you to tell me-"
"What if this really is a relic? No it isn't, but it really is the necklace my mother gave me "
"I can see that boy and I also know how that necklace works, why lie?"
"I have no other credible way to explain how I managed to obtain these powers, only with what I have shown, you already saw how tense they were, what surprises me is that you were not the same"
"It is because of my debt to madam Sara, when we left the capital she made me swear that I would help her son Aaron until she recovered and if there is the slightest possibility that you are really Aaron, it is my obligation to take that risk"
"I see ... thank you"
"And what do you plan to do now boy?"
"I'm not sure, I wanted to discuss with you and Donovan an action plan but how he has behaved so far..."
"It is not that I excuse him but it is not strange, he feels guilty that he has involved the members of the order and his son in all this"
"Son?"
"Yeah, that Dylan, he adopted him when he was about five or six years old and since then he has trained him."
"If he trained him from so young, why can't he wait to make me disappear?"
"That's because he grew up being compared to you, and even being about three years older than you, he couldn't match your progress, that always weighs on him."
"I just hope he doesn't do anything stupid ... other than what he has already done."
Without saying much more, Aaron simply took out some dried meat from his inventory and rested for an hour, after which he got up lit one of the torches and entered the prison again where he addressed the knights who were resting.
"In an hour I will leave, if someone wants to leave on their own say so now, if not, let's start making a plan on how to get out of here alive"
Seeing that no one objected, Aaron continued.
"The first thing we should do is leave the noble district, after that, we need to go to one of the exits either south, west or north of the commercial area and-"
"Wait, why are you the only one talking?"
Dylan interrupted to what Aaron looked at him and after ignoring him and giving Donovan a look, he replied
"One, because I am your lord, two, because I am the lord of the order you serve, three, although it may not seem like it just like Dominic or Donovan, I have the rank of captain of the magic unit in this order of knights, unlike you a mere apprentice, so if you don't like the idea, as I said, you can go away "
Aaron said as he looked at the rest of the knights who had gathered to hear his plan without saying anything
"The same for the rest, now, if that is clear... our best chance is to get to the port, for this we can use the southeast exit and cross a large part of the commercial area on foot, after that we try to take a boat and leave, the another is a little less risky but we need to divide "
Aaron said while on the ground he drew a basic sketch of the city
"To do this, one group would use the moat around the castle to get to the port and secure a ship beforehand, after that it would be to navigate it up the river and pick up the second group that should be waiting at the internal docks of the military sector to the north.
"And why not all of us go through the canal to the port"
"Not everyone here is fit to swim"
"All of us here are trained a little water don-"
"Dylan shut up for once!"
Yelled Donovan who could only sigh and indicate to Aaron that he could continue.
"The northern part is the most isolated from the rest of the city thanks to the river and the moat, so there should be fewer beasts in that area and they should be able to carry the emperor safely to the dock."
"Those are basically our options."
"I see ... As you mentioned, the northern area is more isolated so we should be in less danger, but who will be the members of the first group that will go by the ship"
"That's simple, Dominic, Oliver and I will go through the moat to the harbor, while you lead the rest and protect the emperor."
"... {sigh} understood, we will leave 10 minutes after you"
Seeing that nobody had any problems with the organization of the groups or that they no longer wanted to continue looking for problems, Aaron fine-tuned the rest of the details of the plan and with less than three hours to dawn, they left the castle.
After storing the armor in their inventory, they entered the moat of the castle where they continued until they reached the sewer that connected to the port, where after verifying that there were no dangers nearby, they left and quickly equipping themselves the armor that they kept dry in Aaron's inventory, they searched a ship in the vicinity.
Thanks to their luck, they were able to find a small sailboat which had not been damaged too much and after exchanging the sails for spare ones, they set sail in the direction of the river.
Entering this they were sighted by a couple of corrupted beasts that, without being able to reach them, followed them along the edge of the river, seeing this Dominic and Oliver became worried and began to row with more force to push the boat a little faster. But when they were approaching the internal docks they began to hear battle sounds.
Getting up, Aaron could observe the second group cornered one of the docks by several corrupted wolves, seeing this Aaron channeled a wind spell to accelerate the ship and after approaching about 100 meters, taking a bow from his inventory he began to shoot, easing the situation of the second group.
With no time for the ship to come to a complete stop, the knights jumped, seeing that everyone had managed to climb, Aaron quickly changed the direction of the ship to move away from the shore and casting a second spell accelerated the ship allowing them to move away from danger.
Feeling a slight dizziness Aaron could only sit up and after breathing he looked at his status.
*********
Ember Guardian System
User: Aaron Froststar
Race: Human (86%)
---------
{Status}
LV: 7
XP: 158/769
SP: 0
HP: 132/132
MP: 11/43
STR: 17
AGI: 20
DEX: 22
CON:11
INT: 19
WIS:19
CHA: 19
---------
…
---------
A basic structure was detected, do you want to place it now? Y / N
*********
Seeing the announcement at the end of his state, Aaron remembered the reward he got when entering the castle and finding the emperor, selecting Yes, in front of Aaron a new window appeared which showed him only the hill where he had previously camped and the rest of the map in black
[Hal, how does this work?]
[Simple boy, what you can see is considered as your territory or neutral territory around your territory that you can claim, everything else either you have not explored or is out of range of your territory, so even if you explore it you will not be able to see any]
[So…. How does it work?]
[To the right of the map there should be a button, once you press it or think about it, it will open a menu]
Following Hal's instructions, Aaron thought about opening the menu and it showed him a simple menu which was a couple of buttons that showed changing the map view, objects, and a couple more that remained gray and indistinguishable.
[The change view is to see the resources, populations or status of your territory, the objects are objects that you can place in your territory, these can be resources or buildings]
Beginning to understand the menu, Aaron entered the objects submenu and in it he could find the wooden tower that he had obtained, selecting it, it appeared on the map of the window and under these two options, build or cancel.
[Now you just have to select where you want to place this building and it will be built right away]
[How convenient]
[Do not get used to it boy, it is rare that they give you buildings like that, most likely from now on, you will only get basic improvements for buildings that you must build on your own]
[It couldn't be that easy right?]
[What did you expect?]
Without thinking much more, Aaron built the tower in the central part of the hill and without realizing it, he built it where his camping tent and barricades were located, making them disappear.
Seeing that this was done and that they are about to leave the city, Aaron approached the river bank to pick up Luna which confused the knights
"What are you doing, can't you see that those things are still following us?"
Shout Dilan looking for a way to return the humiliation to Aaron who simply ignored him and after getting close enough he whistled and after a few seconds, Luna who was hidden among the ruins of the tower came out, but when she saw several beasts approaching she ran away and jumped into the river to get closer to the boatfrom which Aaron threw a rope which Luna bit, allowing Aaron to help her up onto the boat.
Seeing that their prey was relatively close, several beasts jumped into the river trying to reach the ship without success as Aaron again changed the ship's course away from the shore.
Knowing that they were safe the knights sighed, but Dilan, who had been ignored again became enraged and confronted Aaron.
"For a dog? Did you put us all in danger for a dog? "
His scream caused everyone to look in his direction making the environment uncomfortable.
"So far, she has helped me and as far as I see it, she is more useful than you"
"More useful you say ... The only use of that is to make skewers"
He said that while pointing with contempt and a dangerous look at Luna, which caused her to become even more scared, which caused Aaron feeling her fear thanks to the contract, to become enraged by throwing a punch at the unsuspecting Dylan making him fall.
Without wasting time, Aaron took him by the hair and hitting him on the face with his knee that stunned Dylan even more, he dragged him to the edge of the boat where he prepared to throw him overboard, but was interrupted by Donovan's voice.
"Aaron, please, we need all the help we can get."
"Donovan, over and over again this bastard has contradicted me and gone against me in everything I say or do and now you are telling me to let him go? "
"I'll make sure you understand, I ask you for another chance"
"One more?"
"..."
"The next time he tries something, the one that ends up as a skewer will be him."
Saying that, Aaron threw Dilan at Donovan's feet and walked off to the other end of the ship with Luna to rest, but after a minute he could see Tom approaching.
"Is it good that you're okay Aaron, or should I call you my lord now?"
"It's okay Tom, Aaron is okay"
"You know, I was very surprised by what you changed in these two months that we have not seen each other"
Tom said as he sat next to Aaron
"We all did it Tom, even Donovan, before all this if some knight had behaved like that Dylan, he would have thrown him overboard "
"Yeah, I guess that's true, since they locked us up Captain Donovan isn't the same, you should have talked to Captain Dominic right?"
"Yes…"
Aaron said as he caressed and calmed Luna who had leaned between his legs and after talking a bit more with Aaron, Tom sighed and said goodbye.
"I'll let you rest, I'm glad to see that you didn't change as much as we thought"
"What do you mean?"
"Well ... When you gave Dilan a lesson a while ago, several of the boys got worried, how to say ... It looks like you had the eyes of a beast about to kill, but it's good to see that everything ended without major problems"
After saying that, Tom left with the rest of the gentlemen leaving Aaron thinking about what he had said
[Hal]
[What's up boy?]
[What do you think he meant by that?]
[It is basically what he said boy, as you know, the contract allows you to use the skills and feel what your servants feel, as you still do not get used to it this influenced you with some traits of Luna's race, and by feeling her fear that instinct woke up and caused you to attack that brat]
[This will be troublesome]
[Perhaps, but perhaps those animal instincts may save your life]
Without more to say, Aaron closed his eyes as the boat sailed down the river and after a couple of hours, with the sun behind them, they reached the hill and brought the boat closer to a clearing on the bank of the river.
To be continued...
…
*********
Ember Guardian System
User: Aaron Froststar
Race: Human (85%)
---------
{Status}
LV: 7
XP: 158/769
SP: 0
HP: 132/132
MP: 22/43
STR: 17
AGI: 20
DEX: 22
CON:11
INT: 19
WIS:19
CHA: 19
---------