"They never returned?" a man dressed in luxurious clothes had his hand under his chin in contemplation.
"No my liege. We sent some men to their last known location but we didn't find anything." A man wearing military apparel decorated with medals was kneeling before the throne as he addressed the king.
"That isn't enough to seek an audience with me" the king furrowed his brows and stated plainly. He had known this soldier for a long time. In fact he had known him all his life. The man kneeling before him was the captain of the Kingdom's Royal Guards and he was very loyal. He would never come to see him for something so trivial.
"We didn't find their bodies; however, we did find something else" once he was done speaking he unfurled the cloth he was holding to reveal a piece of armor in it. The armor had a crest and some strange markings on it. He ordered one of the guards to send it closer to the king.
"This is the crest of the Knights of the Eastern Sun!" the king exclaimed when he had a good look at the crest. His facial expression was unsightly. Now he knew why the Captain wanted to see him. A member of the Knights of the Eastern Sun was found dead in their borders. They had nothing to do with it but the Master wouldn't care about their involvement. They were in trouble all the same.
"That isn't the bad news My King" the kneeling captain said.
"It's not?" the King grew scared upon hearing that the death of a member of a group they couldn't afford to offend was not the bad news. If there was something worse how will his kingdom be able to come out of this unscathed?
"We didn't find the corpse of just one knight. We found scores of them. At least twenty of them died within our borders." The captain delivered more bad news.
"What?!" the king screamed in an unsightly manner. However right now he didn't care about what he looked like. He began to sweat profusely. There was no way his little kingdom will be able to handle the weight of this magnitude.
"What can we do? Do you have any ideas?" he frantically enquired of the captain. This man was not only the captain of the guards but his closest advisor. He always came up with the best solutions and he was seldom wrong about this plans. The king looked at him and saw that he was calm. He slowly calmed down. If the captain was so calm about this, then it meant he had a solution already.
"I do" the captain nodded and replied.
"Great. What is it?" the king asked in expectation.
"Your death" the captain coldly answered. Before the king could register what was happening, a sword was lodged deeply in his chest. Someone had stabbed him from behind. With all the strength he could muster he turned his head to see who had delivered the blow that was bound to rob him of his life.
"Why?" he gasped as he struggled to breath.
"We need to give Master an explanation. We have no other choice" the captain sighed as he replied. He was loyal to the kingdom, not the king. The only way they could save the kingdom was by giving Master a suitable explanation. And by how Master worked, the only explanation they could give was one written in blood.
The king fell off his throne and onto the ground. The sword that killed him was still embedded in the throne and his blood had stained the seat meant for royalty. As he fell onto the ground he couldn't push down the sadness welling up within him. Why did it have to be him? Anyone else could have killed him so why did it have to be him? Why did it have to be his own son?
"You know you didn't have to do it yourself" the captain sighed as he observed the young boy who had just betrayed his own father.
"What good would that do: passing the sentence yet showing cowardice by fearing to carry it out yourself" the young prince grabbed his dark hair in dismay as tears fell down his face. This was the hardest thing he had ever done in his life. And he didn't think that there would be another like it.
"The others?" the boy asked as he wiped his tears.
"It is done" the captain sighed when he saw the boy's eyes redden once again. "We did as you asked. They didn't feel any pain" the captain continued. It wasn't only the king who had faced death. The members of the royal family all faced the same end. But the prince had asked that his siblings and the empress be killed with poisons. He didn't want them to go through the pain of a violent death. As for his father he had to do it himself.
"You are the only one left" the captain sadly spoke with his eyes still on the young boy. The prince was very talented in both wielding and the affairs of the kingdom. He was only fifteen, but he was at the 6th stage of the mortal realm. He had developed many ideas for the development of the kingdom that will see the kingdom blossom into a major force of the Eastern Empire in several decades. And it was he who decided that the death of the royal family was the only way to appease the bloodthirsty Master.
"You don't have to die. You could escape and return later" the captain tried to persuade the prince when he saw the boy pull out the sword he used to murder his father and place it on his own neck. The guards in the throne room looked down onto the ground in pain. What happened today was no doubt the most painful experience for them. But what was going to happen trumped the other painful events.
The prince was very talented. They had no doubt that the kingdom would experience unprecedented growth in his hands. Alas it wasn't meant to be.
"I cannot live with myself knowing what has happened; what my own hands have done" the young prince's hands shook as he spoke. It wasn't from fear that his body was robbed of its calm – the prince wasn't afraid of his impending execution. He shook from the sorrow he was experiencing; from that nerve racking pain he had never felt before.
"My only regret is that I wouldn't be able to kill those responsible with my own hands" the prince gritted his teeth in hatred. Even after all this he didn't blame the Master. The Master was the ruler of the Eastern Empire. Why would he blame his leader? His hatred was directed towards the people who had killed the knights in his kingdom. He was a brilliant boy so he was able to discern that the killers were outsiders. After all, who would dare antagonize the Master in his own kingdom but his enemies?
"Promise me that you will do right by the people in our absence" the young crown prince smiled mournfully as he made his last request.
"I will My Prince" the captain knelt down in obeisance. All the guards knelt down as well. All with their heads bowed. They didn't want to see what was going to happen.
"Then I can leave with a clear conscience" the prince said and prepared to take his life.
The captain lifted his head after a few seconds in confusion. He didn't hear the sound of a sword claiming the life of another. He didn't hear the sound of a lifeless body hitting the ground. A look of surprise filled his face when he saw what was going on. There was a robed man standing right beside the prince. He gave off an aura of unfathomability. He seemed infallible; and he was akin to a god. He held the prince's sword, preventing the weapon from claiming the teen's life.
"You have great foresight. You are highly intelligent. I cannot let one with such qualities die. I need someone like you at my side." The intruder's voice was charismatic and had a strange charm that befuddled the senses.
"What is your name boy" the intruder asked.
"Lemuel – Lemuel Brown" the prince replied absentmindedly.
"Lemuel I can help you get your revenge. I can help you decimate those who forced your family to their deaths" the intruder stated
Lemuel's eyes reddened as he stared at his father's corpse. The scene where he plunged his sword into his father's heart flashed past his brown eyes. Very soon fury replaced his anger.
"How? How can you promise such a thing? Do you know the Master?" Lemuel couldn't help but ask.
"Silly boy" the cloaked figure laughed and revealed his face. It was the face of a middle-aged man who had experienced the vicissitudes of life. It was the face of the man who was once the Head of the Assassins Association! The kneeling captain had his eyes wide open in surprise. He knew that face! It was the face he didn't want to see at this moment.
He gently caressed the head of the boy like a loving father and said
"Because I am the one you call Master. But you can call me Teacher"