A strange dream

Telling the rest that they had already arrived, Aaron steered the ship to a clearing in the river near the hill and after anchoring the ship.

Slowly using some of the mana that he could recover to avoid a greater expenditure, Aaron created three stone pillars that were tall enough to protrude a bit out of the water thus allowing him to reach the shallow end of the shore and walk from there.

"Now what Aaron?"

Tom asked who along with Marc had followed Aaron.

"The hill, that's where my father and I went to train and where we will set up the camp"

"The Duke?"

"Yes ... We must secure the boat to a tree, we must also move quickly, we do not know what may be observing us"

Saying that Aaron started walking towards the hill and Tom scratching his head, told Marc to go help the rest to secure the boat and after that, he followed Aaron

"Hey, Aaron…"

"What now Tom?"

Aaron said a bit tired as he watched the tree line while Luna sniffed around.

"How did you do it?"

"?"

"I mean, how did you manage to survive everything that happened, even though it was only a small part of the horde that came to Caya the day they locked us up, I could see its magnitude"

"... This is not the best time for distractions and you know it Tom"

"I guess you're right…"

"... … I was lucky"

"What?"

"I said I was lucky, if my father had not sent the chosen ones to escort me if we had left the ship a little sooner or later"

"If we had not found a cave to hide in after entering the forest or if the chosen ones had abandoned me ..."

"If I had not accepted my responsibility ... If any of those things had happened, I would have ended up dead"

"Aaron..."

"As I said, this is not the time ... I'll watch the east, you keep watch over the west ..."

Without waiting for an answer, Aaron began to walk along the edge of the clearing, not finding more than a few tracks of common animals that had approached the river to drink, Aaron returned and after joining the rest who had disembarked with the emperor they headed to the camp.

Without speaking, they advanced and to everyone's surprise, when they were reaching the top of the hill, they could see a wooden keep, this covered thirty-six square meters and had two floors, with a single entrance that faced north and without windows on the first floor, with 6 windows around the second floor and a pair of logs interspersed on top, it was strong enough to withstand a small siege.

Around this, there was a moat around one and a half meters deep.

Ignoring the knights' surprise, Aaron advanced and after making sure that nothing had gotten into the keep, he began to empty his inventory, after which he told them to bring the emperor to the second floor where he left the rest of the skins to give him a place where to rest.

Leaving two knights tending to the still unconscious emperor, he went down to the first floor where he found the rest of the group talking.

"How is the emperor?"

"Out of danger apparently, Rolan and Sam are taking care of him, hopefully, he should wake up in a couple of hours"

"I see ... that's good ..."

"So we have to see what we do now"

"The most basic thing we should do is to reinforce the keep and make sure that there are no groups of beasts or demons in the vicinity"

"We could use some barricades for now while we build a wall."

"They don't do much, but one to block the door would be useful, something else?"

"We need food, I offer myself to go hunting something" Dylan said trying to make his voice sound to what the other knights ignored and could only deny or sigh at his comment "

"What ... what's wrong?"

"We do not know what is around, if we go out blind only death awaits us"

Understanding his mistake, Dylan could only hang his head in shame.

"Leaving that aside, as you already mentioned, we need to keep an eye on the surroundings, Oliver and Pier, for now just keep an eye on the surroundings of the hill and the area that connects to the river."

"Understood"

"Then the rest of us will reinforce the keep?"

"No Aaron, you, Dylan, and Tom rest, Dominic and I will keep an eye on the surroundings from here in the meantime."

"I don't need to rest I-"

Without letting Dylan finish, Donovan put his hand on his shoulder and said

"Dominic is right, both you and Tom don't have much experience in real combat, so you'd better get your strength back and start working in a few hours."

Seeing that neither of them objected, Dominic looked at Aaron who without saying anything, had taken out a piece of cloth and with a little charcoal began to draw.

"This square in the center represents the tower, as already mentioned, we need a wall to be really safe for now"

After saying that, he drew a hexagon on the fabric

"For this, I would say that about 10 meters from the moat of the tower should be enough, as we move forward I will create a couple of stone walls every time I can, this will help to close the perimeter sooner, this will reinforce the wall and once it is finished we can use it as a platform "

"Is not too much?"

"This time I agree with him, 10 meters is too much for now"

"It is not, in fact, we still need to increase the perimeter further, but first we need a safe place for ourselves."

"For what?"

"For the people…"

Aaron said as he looked at the rest of the group one by one

"I remind everyone that you joined the frozen iron order under oath to protect the people and the empire, so that's what we will do."

"..."

"I hope you understood that... going back to the plan, in addition to the stockade, we need to clear the surroundings of the weeds, Donovan, from tomorrow you will be in charge of organizing everything"

"?"

"I say this because Tom, Dominic, and I will go north to check the villages, if I remember correctly, there must be at least 3 villages less than a day's travel from here"

"Isn't it a bit hasty?"

"Marc, you saw how the city was, although the villages are not so close, we do not know in what condition they are so we must hurry"

Saying that and after organizing the team, they all divided to do their thing, and Aaron, finally after almost ten days, was able to sleep relatively safely.

---------

Floating in the dark, Aaron woke up without being able to identify where he was, nervously looking around only to discover a haze from which he could only distinguish a couple of sights and sounds.

"Darling, we have to go"

"Mother? What's going on?"

"We're in trouble, the demons are coming from the sanctuary and will arrive at any moment, we have to-"

"Madam watch out!"

""

Seeing this, Aaron knew that these were his memories, without wanting to look further, Aaron floated away looking for a way out, but only found more memories.

"Doctor, how is Sara?"

"I'm not sure, it seems that she used up all her magic power, I couldn't tell when she will be able to wake up."

"...y"

"Aaron, you stay with father, my duty as future duke is not to be at the front, but in the city"

"Bo... w... p"

"Young Master ... please ... stay ... safe ... "

"Aaron we have to go!"

"Bo... w... p!"

"Sidon, we need to retreat to the silver plains, the emperor must be about to reach the city, as for the civilians, they will go ahead of us"

…

Aaron floated faster and faster, while a sense of insecurity surged within him until all was quiet and a pair of eyes appeared in the mist.

"Mhmm, so that bastard's blood still exists ..."

"Boy wake up!"

After Hal's scream, Aaron woke up, and looking around he found himself in the white room

"Hal?"

"You finally wake up boy, you worried me"

"What happened? What was that?"

"I don't know, you tell me, all I know is that for a second before you woke up, your magic circuit was almost fragmented, what happened?"

"I ... I don't know, I was floating in a void and I could see some memories ... Also ... I also heard a voice and something else, but I can't remember ..."

"I see ... Then it was ..."

"What?"

"I have no idea"

"Heh?"

"Don't worry boy, the lady here told me that it was nothing you have to worry about and that she will make sure it doesn't happen again."

"I ... I see ... Thank you for that, how long was I unconscious?"

"Not long, only about four hours"

"Only four hours ... Hey you didn't say I couldn't enter this place for a while"

"It is true, but that only applies if we make your subconscious increase the speed at which you perceive time, in other words, at this moment it is as if you had a lucid dream, so the speed at which time passes It is normal"

"... So I only have 2 hours left"

"That's right boy, but look on the bright side, you can rest all night"

"..."

Listening to Hal's encouragement, Aaron simply closed his eyes and after a few seconds, he could hear the sounds of people working, opening his eyes he could see that he was back in the tower.

Sighing at the blink that cost him two hours of rest, Aaron sat down and drank some water from his water bag, and after taking a deep breath he realized that neither Rolan, Tom, nor any of the others were on the second floor.

There was only an older man looking at him with a slight smile.

To be continued…

…

*********

Ember Guardian System

User: Aaron Froststar

Race: Human (84%)

---------

{Status}

LV: 7

XP: 158/769

SP: 0

HP: 132/132

MP: 37/43

STR: 17

AGI: 20

DEX: 22

CON:11

INT: 19

WIS:19

CHA: 19