The captain's eyes widened after Orion finished speaking.
"Did you say English?" The captain began to start slowly chuckling before he burst out into a fit of deep laughter, causing everyone around them to stop and look over as his ruckus continued to get louder. "I can't believe it! I was not just lucky enough to meet one kid who can speak that language, but four!"
The brothers looked between themselves, confusion adamant on their faces as they all turned and looked at the captain. Hunter and Ian both tensed up, preparing to fight if need be while Spartacus and Orion leaned in closer, curious about how this man new what English was.
The captain looked around the table, noticing the two different reactions appearing amongst the brothers. He quickly smiled while raising his hands off the table in a weaponless manner before he spoke. "The prince made a decree that anyone who knew or spoke a bunch of unknown languages like English, Mandarin Chinese, Japanese, French and what not were to be brought to him immediately. If anyone lied about knowing these languages, they would be severely punished for trying to deceive him." Spartacus raised his eyebrows hearing this. Ian and Hunter both relaxed, moving their hands away from their weapons.
"So you're gonna be sending us to meet the prince then?" Orion looked at the captain skeptically, surprised that they were able to get a meeting with royalty so quickly.
The captain nodded as he spoke slowly, looking at them intensely. "I have to first send a letter informing his highness about all of you, however it will be a while before his troops arrive to escort you. Until then, if you boys need anything, just let me or any other soldier know and we'll do what we can to help out."
Spartacus smiled sincerely as he looked at the captain. "In that case captain, may I have your name?"
"Of course! My name is August Browne." The captain pulled off his dark gray iron helmet, showing long curly shamrock green hair along with pointed ears, causing the four brothers to be slightly shocked. "My name is human because I'm actually a half elf. My parents were adventurers in the same guild. They ended up going on many missions together until they married and had me. After that, they retired so we could be a family and live together."
As Hunter listened to August speaking, he began to smell the scent of sadness emitting from him. If one were to only look at him, they would think he was a happy and merry elf, but Hunter's predatorial senses had him realize his true emotions. [Damn, those old stories back on earth about elves being cold can be slightly true! They may not all act cold, but their able to freeze their emotions to such a degree, not even a professional actor could pull this off!]
Hunter cleared his throat, causing all the attention at the table to turn on him. Leaning forward towards August, Hunter asked the question blatantly. "What happened to your parents?"
August finally showed an uncontrolled emotion as he froze in slight shock after hearing Hunter's tone. After that he smiled sadly as he looked at Hunter. "I'm over two hundred years old. In the next three hundred years I will age and then my life will end because I'm part human. If I was a pure blood elf I could live for thousands of years, easily. In the case of my parents, my father was able to live till he was eighty six before death finally took him. My mother, not wishing to live centuries without him, then killed herself to join him in the after life. I was lucky enough to be the one who found them both dead, had my little brother found them I fear that he would've gone insane."
Ian and Spartacus bowed their heads in silence, while Orion patted August on his narrow shoulders. Hunter nodded silently as he sat back in his seat with a slightly dark smile; thinking back to all his biology courses he took that focused on genetics. [Even without magic, if we had long living species like elves and dwarves, we could easily cure the aging process and maybe even make everyone ageless. Well then, little prince, I hope your vault is able to withstand my research expenditure.]
Spartacus finally spoke again as he asked August for intelligence. "Since we won't be staying long here in Ironchill, can you tell us about the capital, the royal family, and the relations between Siol and the other countries?"
August chuckled as he looked at Spartacus. "Okay, so Siol is considered the wealthiest country on the continent. To the East we have the Yechen Empire, which we have a rough relation with. In the recent years we've begun increasing our troop count on the border since the Yechen Empire has started to become slightly hostile towards us. To the North, we have the Oglorg Nation which is made up of non feral cored goblins, orcs, trolls, and a couple other species. Thanks to the prince, we've begun to have peaceful relations with them and so they have entirely stopped attacking our borders and allow us access to their mines and forests in compensation for food, weapons, and our friendship."
The barmaid brought another large mug over and gave it to August as she bashfully smiled. He grinned back as he took a swig of ale, smacking his lips and continuing to speak.
"To the West, we have the Frozen Mountains which is home to a lot of powerful and dangerous beasts there. A couple clans of Dragons have also lain claim to certain territories so if anyone goes there and aren't careful then the traveler will most definitely be dead. There is however a city of powerful dwarves called the Dwarves of Ice that is said to reside in the center of the Frozen Mountains. To the South West is the Cold Forest which is home to the Winter Elves. They are in good relations with us as well, however they have recently begun slowly cutting ties off with us. As to why, we do not know. Finally, to the South East is the sprawling fields of Albadoor. Thanks to their land's natural fertility and many of their mages are level five nature mages; they are capable of producing massive amounts of food. Most of which is traded with us in exchange for our crafts. Albadoor is also home to the great human schools of magic, craft, knighthood, and adventurer. These four schools focus on the main aspects of human life, and allows for rich merchants, nobles, and royalty to send not only their children but any special talents they find, to quickly improve their skills and return with those said skills to make a "better" nation.
*Sigh* From what I heard, it also allows for the younger noble generations to begin forming connections, allies, and even arranged marriages so they can continue making themselves powerful for their own glory. The only school I personally have respect towards is the School of Adventurers. That school at least allows for any legal adventurer to send their kids for one year of training for free, then the children have to take the skills they learned and complete certain quests given by the school to continue their education. The parents can't help or else the child will be disqualified and not allowed to continue their training. As for the other three schools, they're nothing more than to train the non successors of the noble and royal families."
Orion leaned forward excitedly as he interrupted August's speech. "What's the name of this school?"
August looked at him hesitantly before he spoke, "Daurarth, Aletone, Contanine, and Brecker. That is the name for the four schools, however the overall name of the school is Elshechia Cantounoo."
"Those are some... unique names." Ian hesitated as he thought of a word other than weird for the names of the schools.
August chuckled as he detected Ian's hesitation. "From what I know, the four separate school names are the names belonging to the founders of the school. They were an adventurer group that fought against a demon god and defeated him nearly a thousand years ago. Albadoor is a little over five hundred years old, and the four schools are their pride and joy. There's supposedly a legend behind the four heroes and why the overall name for the school is Elshechia Cantounoo, but since no one knows what language it is and the legend is only passed on by the students I don't know it."
The brothers continued listening intently as they watched August take another drink from his mug of ale.
"All the merchants here are considered equivalent to nobles in other countries, and all the nobles here are business tycoons. Basically everyone is very wealthy, and add in the fact that the prince degreed that all children must take mandatory education, it's lead to an increase in the kingdom's wealth and power. After the wall was built, and with the aid of the gargoyle clans, our armies were able to hunt down and purge all overly hostile monsters in the entire kingdom. You will definitely not find any other place as safe as Siol.
Thanks to the gargoyles, we were also able to crack down on multiple criminal organizations like bandits, slave traders, and what does the prince call it?.... Ah yes sex traffickers. While the crown was cracking down on these, they did end up catching a few high nobles who were taking part in this and as an example to the rest of the nation, they executed them for their crimes. Many of the higher nobles didn't sit well with this, however since his majesty has won the favor of the people, the support of the entire sentinel contingent, and has control over all the gargoyle clans, they have found it nearly impossible to strike back against him.
Other than that tension in the capital, there isn't really much. Once you boys get there, your brother Ian while probably be asked to take on the sentinel training which will take a few years or else they will request the armor back. As for sir Hunter, the Guild of Mercenaries while most definitely hire you for your skills."
The brothers nodded as they looked at each other. Ian finally spoke up after having appeared to have come to a decision. "When we get there, I'll definitely be taking the sentinel training. Being taught by a professional will be far more beneficial than me practicing on my own, especially if I can learn sword techniques. I won't up and leave right away, I'll wait till the family is all settled, and I plan to come back and visit whenever I can."
The other three smiled and nodded. "Follow the path in your heart, our goal right now is to get stronger so we can stand in this world. Every little bit helps and with that knowledge gained, we can use to not only improve ourselves, but also each other. Once we claim a place as home, it will always be a home you can return to, no matter how far you go, nor what may happen. We swore to be brothers, and so we will stand together through thick and thin." Spartacus spoke confidently, causing Ian to smile while Orion and Hunter nodded their heads in agreement.
Ian turned to Hunter after Spartacus finished speaking. "What about you, little brother? You thinking about joining the Guild of Mercenaries then?"
Hunter shook his head. "I made a promise to take Stephanie to Daurarth so she can continue her knowledge as a storm mage. I also promised Alexi that I would go and hunt that dragon with him in two months so I will be busy. Besides I have no intention of being a sword for hire; my skills are too good for that. Other than going on adventures to fight strong beings and get stronger, I have some other things that I want to try and understand. If I can get a break through, we might be able to find a way to increase our speed of strength compared to how hard it is for you three to get stronger right now."
Orion's eyes widened when he realized what Hunter meant by what he said. He began to laugh merrily, causing both Ian and Spartacus to feel slightly confused as they were unable to get what Hunter was implying. As for August, he sat there dumbfounded, wondering what was going through Hunter's head.
August finished his last mug of ale, and looked out the window at the night sky. Getting up to leave he turned and looked at the brothers as he put his helmet back on. "It was truly an honor getting to meet you all. If you ever need anything, let me know and I'll see what I can do."
Spartacus laughed as he heard this before responding. "On the contrary my friend, it should be us offering you the favor. You gave us so much information, yet we gave you nothing in return. Should anything ever trouble you, let us know, we are far more capable than you think."
August hesitated, almost thinking on whether he should use their favor now or not. The brothers noticed this, however they did not push him, letting him make his own decision. Finally he nodded towards them and began walking out the door. As he left he spoke over his shoulder to the four of them. "I'll get that letter sent tomorrow morning. Let me know where you boys end up staying, and when I get a response from the capital, I'll let you know."
"Sure thing, old man." Orion lightly teased August as he left, before he finished his cup of ale and followed the other three up the stairs and to their room. In the room was two large beds, big enough for two boys to share a bed. The four of them didn't mind as they each climbed in and went to sleep, still continuing the watch to make sure the other children were safe in their rooms.