Fragment Bargaining

The girl clutched her chest where the fragment is. "I don't know why you want the Windstone, but I won't give it to you."

"Hm?" The Windstone? Is that what they called the fragment? "Why do you need the Windstone?" Kies asked them.

"Why do you want it?" the girl asked him back. But instead of saying need, she said want instead, implying that Kies didn't actually need the stone and only "wanted" it for something.

"I 'need' the stone," Kies corrected her. It wasn't something as trivial as 'want.' The fragment was by far much more important to him than that.

"Okay then. What do you 'need' it for?"

"A mission," Kies answers her. He wasn't going to explain the details of it since it was too long and would probably sound way too unrealistic to believe.

"Okay, and we also need the Windstone for our mission. What makes you think that we don't need it either? It's not like you're the only one who has something important to do." The girl's reasoning is solid and Kies understands this, but still, he needed the fragment.

Neither side looked like they would back down and the tension was growing between the two parties. Seeing how this isn't going to go anywhere, the girl decided to try to make a deal with Kies. "How about this? I'll give it to you if you help us out?" Seeing how Kies was able to take out all fifteen of those bandits, he was definitely quite skilled and having him help them out will really make things a whole lot easier.

"What!? Why would we do that!?" The man didn't like the idea of recruiting Kies' help for their mission. And neither did Kies himself. He didn't want to help the three either. He was pressed on time and couldn't do anything else outside of his own mission.

"I don't have the time to help," Kies agrees with the man.

"Then I won't give the necklace to you."

"..."

"Don't you dare think about it!" The man grabs another sword on the ground and turns to face Kies as he raises both his swords.

"Both of you two, stop!" The girl tried to calm the two of them down again before things get messy. "Look silver, we're not going to give you the necklace for free. Since you want it, you must know what it can do. I'll give it to you if you help us, it's only fair."

"The necklace? What does it do?" Other than him being able to absorb it to gain power, he had no idea what the fragments did. In the first place, isn't that its only purpose?

"You don't know? Why do you want it then?"

"I have my reasons... Anyway, what else does it do?"

"It... Gives you the power to use wind magic?" The girl told him in a manner that made it sound obvious what its purpose was. What do you mean what else does it do? Does it do something other than that?"

"Uh, never mind..." So that's why the necklace was so valuable to them. It allows the wearer to use wind magic... That sounded plausible considering how it enhanced his wind magic. "What is your mission anyway for you to need something like that?"

"To make it back to Otane... Alive, may I add."

"You want to go to Otane? Then why are you going in the opposite direction of Otane?" Kies asked them. Otane is in the direction that he was traveling in and they were going in the other direction for some reason.

"We were getting chased. I think you may have noticed by now, but these guys," the girl kicked the body of a dead bandit, "They aren't exactly your run-of-the-mill roadside thieves."

"Yeah, they look more like soldiers to me," Kies noticed. They were too well trained to be bandits or petty criminals. Taking into thought this fact and how well dressed the two girls were, Kies had an idea of what was going on. "By any chance, are you two royalty?" Kies asked the two girls in fancy clothing.

"Yes, how did you guess?"

"..."

"They're the second and third princesses of Otane. Since you know their identities now, you better show some respect," the driver tells Kies.

"Titles and positions mean nothing to me. I only show respect to those who are worthy of it," Kies tells him back. He has seen plenty of "royalty" act in a manner that was not deserving of respect. If they wanted him to respect them, then they had to earn it.

The driver looked like he wanted to say something, but the second princess (the one with the necklace) tells him not to. "Fair enough," she tells Kies. "How about this, if you help us, I'll also reward you with other things as well. What do you want? Money, status, fame?"

"I don't care about any of those things."

"What? Um..." The princess thought about it for a moment. Her face lit up when she thought of something else that Kies might want. "Then how about this, you help us and we will help you."

"Help me?"

"Yeah, you said you have a mission right? We'll help you with it if you help us out. I mean, there's nothing wrong with having a princess owe you, is there?" What she said was true and Kies could see that. There were a lot of benefits to having someone of high status, especially a princess helping him, but he was a little skeptical about it.

"If you two are princesses, then why are you both out here with your driver disguised as a merchant?" From the looks of things, it seems that they got chased out of their kingdom. Kies wasn't sure if he should get involved in something like this, especially when it meant that he might make enemies out of a lot of people.

"Some people want us dead..."

Politics was always annoying because of things like this. Backstabbing, assassinations, you name it. Getting himself into something like this is probably not worth it. But in any case, if it was a simple mission that he had to do that didn't involve getting into a mess with high-ranking figures then he might as well accept the offer. Having a princess owing him a favor may be pretty useful in the future.

"I kind of figured that out already. I'm talking about the people that you angered. Who are they?"

"It's the commander of the army."

"Commander?" Wouldn't that be the first princess then? What was her name? "Jenabas?"

"No, she's the queen now. We have a new commander. He's a tyrant. He wants the throne for himself and is trying to kill all of us so that he could take it. Since he has no way to reach the queen right now, he wants to start with us."

"Oh..." The commander of the Otanian army. This was definitely going to be a headache, but it definitely could be worse. "And what do you want me to do? If it's escorting you back to Otane, then I have no problems. But if it's something like taking on the entire army..." Kies had no issue with the first task, but he wasn't about to fight tens of thousands of soldiers just yet,

"Don't worry, we won't tell you to do that. All you have to do is get us back to Otane so that we can inform our sister about this."

"Nothing else?"

"Well, if it goes smoothly then that's all you have to do. If not, then you might have to do more." It was a risky mission, but Kies needed to head in the direction of Otane anyway. Another one of the fragments is in the kingdom somewhere.

"I guess that's fine."

"Does that mean that you're going to help us out?"

"Yes, as long as it doesn't get too complicated."

"That's great!" The second princess jumped up in joy. The driver really looked like he was against it but he couldn't go against the princess' decision. The third princess on the other hand said nothing and just watched everything play out.

Kies tossed the two swords to the ground and walked over to the broken carriage. Or so he thought it was broken but the entire thing was in perfect shape. The only problem was the horses pulling the thing got killed.

"Unless you can magically summon a couple of horses, we will have to go on foot," the second princess tells him.

"We'll go there on foot." Though it would be a lot slower than going there by carriage, Kies didn't care. He spent most of his journey walking on foot. He was used to it. The only thing that he asks for is for the three of them to be quiet during the trip. The last thing he wanted is for them to pester him about his background and a bunch of other personal things, but it seemed like that this is exactly what is going to happen.

"I'm Iris, my shy sister over there is Wompa, and that grumpy old man is Sirks," the second princess introduced everyone in the group to Kies.

"Who are you calling old!? I'll let you know that I'm only in my late twenties."

"Yeah, yeah, whatever. Anyway, what's your name?" Iris asks Kies curiously.

"..."

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