Magnus have left Yellow Rock Fort and has been on the road for a day and he has gotten close to the Ruin's location. He has gone through a few towns, that were near from each other, on the way and now, he would only need to pass through one town.
When he got to this town, he sold his horse and wanted to gain a clear understanding about the relationship between the various families of the Royal capital. But because of his young age and small body frame, if he were to try and enter an inn or a bar, he would immediately thrown out. Well, he could also threaten the information out of some poor lad but he wanted to have his presence remain unknown as long as he could.
Because of this small problem, Magnus decided to just buy food from the stands. He used his heightened sense to listen to various conversation that happened inside the bars. Locations such as this definitely has a lot of information coming in and out, some are rumors but even rumors have some truths in them.
"Hey, have you heard about the talks about that ruins, north of here?" One of the people eating there, started the conversation.
This naturally peaked Magnus' interest.
"Oh, you mean the place where all those big shots are going?" Another one answered.
"Yeah, that's it." The first one said.
One of them asked. "Why? What about it?"
Then the first one answered. "Well, I heard that even the heirs of the big families in the capital are coming."
"Which ones?" Someone asked.
The First one smirked and proudly said. "There's the heir of the Amber Family, Jon and his sister, Rachel Amber, is coming with a group of warriors. The Princess of the Umbra Family and the Fiancee of the Queen's cousin, Chloe. Finally, the Cousins of the Queen, Bryan Dahlia."
"I heard the Princess of the Umbra Family is a gorgeous babe." One of the lecherously laughed.
After that, the men laughed and discussed the matter more but most of it were nothing but perverted desire for the noble girls and curse towards the noble families. Magnus left the spot where he listened to the people inside the inn.
As he walked through the town, he thought how to gain information about the relationships of the families of the capital. Like he thought earlier, threatening someone would be a pain so where could he find someone who can provide this information?
Suddenly, Magnus stopped in his tracks as his eyes stared towards a dark alleyway towards his right. He saw, three girls of his age...starving and dirty.
Magnus walked towards them with a heavy heart and slowly he remembered his own situation back when he was a slave. So, something screamed inside of him to help them and he did.
As he came close, he readied one Storage ring out of the numerous rings he has stored within Darkness. All of them came from the bodies of those he has killed, he usually let Gula sort through the contents of these rings.
From these number of rings, Gula has found gold coins, food, cultivation materials, clothes and other miscellaneous things.
"Sister Gula, put food inside a ring for three people and some cultivation materials..." Magnus spoke in his mind.
"You wish to help them, King?" Gula mischievously smiled.
"Yes..." Magnus said.
When he got close to the three girls, he knelt before them. The oldest of the girls weakly raised her head and Magnus saw the fear in her eyes. Just from this, Magnus learned that they must've suffered some abuse, he recognizes this because he too experienced abuse and has once looked upon a person in fear.
Magnus' eyes turned soft and he took out three sets of clothes along with bread for them to eat.
Seeing this, the oldest of the girl was first suspicious but her sisters were expectantly staring at the food that he brought out.
"Go on...eat." Magnus softly said.
The other two girls, quickly took the bread out of his hand and ate them as fast as they could.
"Easy...you're gonna choke yourselves, don't worry I still have more." Magnus chuckled.
Seeing this, the oldest sister finally eased up and took a bread as well. He gave them water when needed and after they ate. Magnus finally gave the oldest sister the storage ring and also a piece of paper.
"Here, there is food, clothes and money inside. But you need to use World Energy to activate it so you have to cultivate this first."
The oldest stared at him again and asked. "Why? why are you helping us?"
Magnus went silent for a while and he answered. "Because i know what you're going through...I know how it feels to starve, to feel dirty, to feel the disgusted face of everyone who sees you. I know of it..."
The oldest of the girls stared at him and saw sadness and rage burning together in his eyes.
"Thank you." She said and tears streamed down her cheeks.
Magnus smiled and asked. "What's your name?"
The Oldest looked back and said. "I don't have a name..."
Hearing this, Magnus stared at her and though the alleyway was dark, he still saw the crimson luster in her eyes and so he said. "How about we call you Raven?"
"Raven..." The girl repeated before she smiled.
"I'm not giving these for free, if you can tell me anything you know about the relationships of the families in the capital, you can have this ring." Magnus smiled.
Raven strangely looked at him and saw that he was merely joking to lightened the mood, she knew that nothing was free in this world but the price that this boy gave was easy to pay that it couldn't be called one.
But she giggled which looked cute despite her dirty look and thin body frame. She said. "Word easily travels here and from what we heard three noble children are going to some ruins?"
Magnus immediately stopped. "Yes, yes, i know of that but how is their relationship to each other?"
Only now did, Raven understood what Magnus was trying to find out and she then said.
"From the rumors, The Heir of the Amber family and the Princess of the Umbra family were mutually in love..."
Magnus then cut in. "Were?"
Raven nodded and continued. "Though they were mutually in love, the Princess of the Umbra Family, Chloe was betrothed to the Queen's older cousin, Bryan Dahlia, who is the rival of the Amber Family heir, Jon. I heard the Heir of the Amber family almost charged past the Royal castle's gate in rage but though he tried to convince the princess of the Umbra family not to go through with the arrange, she couldn't disobey the family order as the queen has threatened her father."
"Since that moment, the royal Dahlia family and the Amber family has already been at odds with each other but the Amber family didn't want to cut ties with the Royal family over some love squabbles." Raven said.
Hearing all this, Magnus took some time to fully understand it and to think of ways how to use this to his advantage. He already has something in mind but he would need to see how things would unfold in the Ruins.
"Thank you." Magnus said.
He stood up and was about to leave when he once again looked at the state of these three girls and thought that if there's something he could do about their appearance?
Suddenly, his face beamed and he extended his arm towards them. This startled Raven and her sisters, she quickly held them in her arms to cover for them. Seeing this, Magnus realized that he frightened them and quickly said.
"Relax, I won't hurt you."
Then the Darkness came from his hands and quickly enveloped Raven and her sisters. When the Darkness came back inside Magnus, the dirt on the three sister's bodies were gone. While they were still not that clean, they were now at least presentable and won't look like dirty street children.
Now, Magnus got a good look at these sisters appearance.
Raven had jet-black hair with mesmerizing crimson eyes and even with her thin frame you could tell that if she ate properly she would grow to be a stunningly beautiful woman, the second oldest had shoulder length hair with soft crimson eyes like her sister but her's were not as striking. Finally the youngest had short hair and like the second eldest, she had soft crimson eyes as well.
Magnus thought that if they weren't starving, they would probably look more vibrant and cute...
When the three sisters saw what happened to their bodies, they nearly jumped for joy and cried.
Magnus then beckoned them to follow him. "Come, you should leave this place while you still can."
Something clicked in, inside the mind of Raven and nodded. She grabbed her sisters arms and followed Magnus.
They passed through the streets while ignoring the gazes of the people that saw them.
Magnus led them out of the town where they saw a merchant caravan with a winged-cat painted on the side, just about to leave. He saw the old merchant and quickly asked Gula.
"Can he be trusted?"
Then Gula answered. "Yup."
Hearing this, Magnus led them towards the Merchant. He called up to him asking.
"Where are you going, old man?"
The Old merchant saw them asked curiously asked. "I'm going to the capital, young man."
Magnus smiled and pulled out five gold coins, presented it to the old man, saying. "Take them with you, keep them safe and well fed and this will be yours."
Sure enough the allure of money was quite powerful. Magnus saw the old merchant visibly swallowing his saliva, tempted, the old man closed his eyes and nodded.
The Old merchant got down from his horse and arranged the things he had on the back to make room for Raven and her sisters. After that the old man went back to take the reigns. Before Magnus could go back and have one last talk with the old man, Raven called out to asking.
"Where will you be going?"
Magnus smiled. "You don't need to know that."
Hearing this, Raven was a bit disheartened and asked. "Alright, then what's your name?"
"Magnus." He replied.
And she repeated it. "Magnus..."
After that he got up to the Old Merchant's face and whispered to his ears. "I will go to the capital one day and when i do, they better be there...safe and sound, if not? I will come and find you..."
Magnus backed up and revealed a serene smile which frightened the old man even more.
As they left, Magnus saw Raven and her sisters waving towards him, he smiled and turned back. Passing through the town once more, the skies has gotten fairly dark and when he reached the other exit. He bought a new horse and began to ride towards the ruins.
Little did he know that he brought up one of the fiercest woman in history in his moment of kindness.
...
Magnus has rode throughout the night and he has gotten quite close to the ruins but as he leisurely traveled across a grassy plain. He saw a commotion from a far where a large group of people were fighting around a carriage.
Half of them were wearing red colored robes like fire and the other were wearing black clothes who covered their faces with masks.
Just from this Magnus knew that one side were assassins and the other was their target. Those who wore red robes had at least seven men and their enemies, who were twice their number wore black. One of them was a young man who had red hair as if were real flames, he gallantly faced four enemies at once. He wielded a spear which had dragon carving on it's shaft.
Magnus watched on, not knowing if he should interfere or not.
But just then, one of the assassins punched through the window of the carriage.
"Rachel!" The young man with flame-like hair screamed.
Out of the window, a ball of fire was blasted toward the assassin who broke the window. This blew the walls of the carriage and out from it, Magnus saw a girl of his age. She too had flame-like hair but her's were deep crimson, she got out of the carriage, sword in hand.
Magnus thought that she might be the sister of the Flame-haired young man. But just at this moment, another assassin suddenly moved behind her.
She and her brother were both surprised, the assassin had his knife close to her back. Her brother is preoccupied with his own enemies and she wouldn't be fast enough to do anything to defend herself.
Closing her eyes, she felt the fear of death grip her heart.
Seeing his own little sister about to be murdered before his very eyes, the Flame-haired young man looked desperate but he couldn't shake away his enemies and his men were occupied as well. As the knife inched closer he wanted nothing more than to burst out of his enemies to rescue his sister.
All was hopeless for him when he saw a silver glint streak through the entire fight.
Thud...
The little girl didn't know how but when she opened her eyes, she turned around and saw the assassin, dead on the ground with a black knife to the head.
Surprised, the flame-haired young man tried to trace the knife back to the source through it's flight path and he saw a little boy on a horse. At first he couldn't believe that a boy could do such a thing but then he saw the boy move his hands again.
In a flash another assassin died.
And because of that, the fight tipped to their favor. The fight was easy from then on, the flame-haired young man and his men easily killed the remaining assassin then he saw the boy rode towards them.
Magnus rode towards them and Gula's voice echoed within.
"You must consume the bodies of those assassin at all cost, it will greatly help you!" She sounded very excited.
Magnus smiled and said. "You got it, big sister Gula."
And thus Magnus met with the Flame-haired young man, face to face.