Windy Fir Woodlands
North of the outskirts of Greystones.
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It's been days since Aden, Iris and Irina had fled from the capital and after hours of relentless trekking and riding, they had finally fled the vicinity of Greystones.
The persistent fleeing had gotten them far out of the reach of their pursuers but had also completely depleted their food supplies.
Although Aden managed to hunt small game like hares and rabbits by smoking them out of their burrows before catching them by hand the meat gained is barely enough to keep them going through the whole day.
And as they progressed into deeper sections of the woods where the trees there were more closely packed together making finding the burrows even harder than it already was.
As soon as Aden confirmed that they were far enough to evade the invaders from Hertalese he stopped the group to construct a temporary camp close to a nearby small stream.
"Lord Aden are you sure that it's safe for us to stop?" Iris worriedly asked Aden who was busy applying a herbal concoction to the cuts and bruises on his body.
He sustained them during the last confrontation. Although they had mostly healed there was still a chance of infection.
Although he won the battle he didn't come out completely unharmed. He danced a hair-breadth from death's embrace several times despite his opponent's lack of skill.
Assuming he had just been slightly unlucky that fight could have very well been his last. Besides using a greatsword cost a lot of effort. Though it grants him explosive speed and unmatched ferocity, it also limits his stamina meaning he has to end his battles quickly.
The bruised skin covering his palms and the constant ache in his joints are all evidence of that.
"Don't worry princess, although we are being tracked I sure we are safe here. Our pursuers are foreign soldiers and knights who don't know the terrain of these lands, they would have long lost our trail."
"There's only so much they can do, but I sure of it "
After he consoled Iris and had finished his self-medication, he proceeded to continue setting up the camp before he went hunting.
While he considered fishing in the stream for food but he soon ditched the idea because of how little food that would provide in the long run.
He planned on smoking a large amount of meat for their next journey so he wouldn't have to keep making pit stops to gather food to eat.
This way although it would take a much longer time to prepare a deer for smoking and an even longer period to even hunt one down, the gains at the end far outweigh the losses.
Given Aden's lack of a projectile weapon like a bow or crossbow that could be used to kill targets from a distance, he had to resort to much less conventional means...
Traps.
While traps are highly effective, they are generally not favoured by the general populace because of the time needed to set it up and the skills required for it to be effective.
Unlike a bow which would allow a hunter to kill his prey on sight, a trap needs to be carefully and skillfully positioned in the spot where it's most likely to encounter its intended target without being spotted.
While most would assume that you just have to drop it on a well-used trail and Shazam! It works...
Well, it doesn't turn out like that.
Unlike the average human being, animals are more sensitive to changes in their environment and tended to be wary of anything unnatural.
For example, a stupidly placed jaw trap in the centre of the path, 'hidden' under a thin veil of leaves expected to catch something will remain untouched by even the 'dumbest' of animals.
Traps like that would alert the animals and sometimes even scare the prey enough to even lay markings, warning others of their kind of the supposed threat.
It takes the right know-how, a ton of experience and sometimes even longer preparation time to get trap laying done correctly.
But even if trap-laying is extremely cumbersome requiring tons of experience, it's not a completely useless art.
While bows and crossbows were quicker and easier to master they still cost money to purchase and maintain, so many patient commoners with less money on their hands resorted to the less expensive or in some cases free traps to hunt game.
Aden soon began setting up the traps, fourteen to be exact, all laid at least 100 yards away from the campsite.
They were all trip line traps that when triggered releases a thick low laying branch bent back in a full crescent. The branches which are all at least an arm thick and stored in them is a lethal amount of potential energy.
When released they swing back in place with a whip-like motion, sweeping a few inches above the ground at knee level carrying enough kinetic energy to either crack the skull of a hare or cripple an adult deer... or person.
Done setting up the trap he returned to their camp and fashioned a fishing spear to hunt for tonight's dinner. Two dead trouts and a pike later, he returned to the camp and began roasting dinner over a fire.
As Aden busied himself setting the traps and fishing, Iris sat quietly in the corner curiously watching the Duke flit to and fro.
Her mother was still grieving and all attempts to console her had gone in vain. Although she had stopped crying two days ago, her eyes looked dull and hollow, refusing to even look at anyone.
She had almost begun to starve herself and it was until Aden explained to her that if she became too weak to travel on her own that they would have to carry her and that doing that would slow them down that she thankfully began eating again.
The thought of losing her daughter, to those b**tards scared her enough to start eating again.
Unlike her mother though, Iris was less impaired.
While she was sad and depressed about everything that had been happening for the past couple of weeks she didn't let it pull her down.
When her father was captured, she didn't get to personally see him when they fled Algrim, but he had promised her through Aden that he would stay alive.
As long as he was still alive and she hadn't been captured yet there was always, even if it was infinitely small, a chance to save him.
So she would never give up but remain strong until they could get him back.
Laying on her back as she watched the starry sky peeking through the forest canopy, Iris called out.
"Lord Aden."
"What is it, princess?"
"How come you are so good at all this? "
Iris asked curiously Aden from her corner without rendering assistance. It wasn't that she didn't want to help but that there was very little she could help with that she was better off just staying out of the way.
She was the princess of one of the seven great kingdoms. That being said, it wasn't strange that she lacked resourceful skills that might have proven useful given their situation.
While she might have gone out on hunting trips with her father it was strictly under the protection of his loyal knights and they were always usually tended to by their servants.
During such hunting trips, she just killed the game with a bow or crossbow while the servants did everything else. As a member of the aristocracy, royalty at that, she never needed to pick up skills like cooking, setting up camp or dressing meat.
The same under common sense the same situation is supposed to also apply to Aden.
His status in the kingdom before his exile to the border was only below the Royal family and was even on the same level as the heads of the ancient families.
In fact, due to his sworn brotherhood with the king, his position should be higher than the ancients, but given how long the ancient families had been in power and the time they had to build their connections among the nobility, being on equal grounds is the best Aden could achieve within the short time span he used to climb to power.
So seeing one of the formally most powerful people in Algrim going around doing these supposedly menial chores that should be supposedly handled by the servants, and with such efficiency baffled her.
Aden smiled upon hearing her question before responding.
"Did his Majesty ever tell you about how we met? "
"Hmm... He did." She nodded with a pensive look before continuing.
"He said he met you during one of his hunting trips a couple of years before I was born in Blackwoods forest. He mentioned that you stole a kill from him that night."
Aden's brows twitched ever so slightly, remembering that 'unfortunate' incident.
"So petty.... "
"What was that? "
"Oh nothing, please continue princess."
Harbouring a faint suspicion, she continued nevertheless.
"He said that during one late evening he sneaked out for a private hunt when he got tired of his guards flocking around him whenever he went hunting.
During that hunt, he spotted a red-tailed deer browsing in the woods several hundred meters away from his campsite so he decided to take it down on his own without the aid of his entourage when someone happened to steal his kill..."
"Well for the record princess, I think you'd misunderstood what the king meant about me stealing his kill. I think he meant that we coincidentally happened to hunt the same game that night. "
"Hnn-hum."
Iris hummed albeit unconvincingly.
"But father said you knew that he already had his sights on that particular deer but you still decided to steal it from right under his nose." She pressed
"You know, I have to give it to you, what you did was pretty praiseworthy. Even when you knew that the future king wanted something you still went ahead to claim it. "
"I must say when you were younger you were really... Gutsy."
While she showered him with sincere praises it sounded more like grating jabs at his ego.
"Erm... Cough-cough, to be frank, I wasn't sure how good an archer he was and I was kinda afraid he was going to scare the game off if he misses it seeing how amateurish his form was then so I decided to take it down on his behalf."
"Hmm... Same thing here," she said still not convinced.
"You can't blame me for doing that, how was I supposed to know that the crowned prince was sneaking around alone in the forest at night."
"I mean who would expect the king to be out alone in the middle of the night out of the safety of his entourage."
"Anyways the point I'm trying to make was that before I encountered his majesty that night I was just an exiled fleeing nobody."
"My father was originally the heir to the main von Greifenbergs household being the oldest and all but he was plotted against by his younger cousin. He was murdered in cold blood and I had to flee my home to preserve my life. "
"I had no wealth, nothing at all when I fled so I started wandering around living like a commoner whilst doing odd jobs. Although I could have gone to swear my loyalty to a duke to serve as a knight I wanted to avoid the problems that came with being a noble and just live peacefully as a normal person. "
"I soon became a game hunter in the black woods and sold the pelts I got from my game at the neighbouring fiefs. It was during one of my hunts that I encountered the then young prince."
"When I meet him although he never once mentioned his title I knew by his demeanour that he was a noble and not just your average hunter so I instinctively decided to leave immediately without even stopping to retrieve my arrow. "
"When his grace saw me leaving he stopped me and surprisingly pleaded, asking me to teach him how I stole his kill without him even noticing."
"I saw a truly curious look in his eyes and felt his sincerity so I decided to give him some pointers regarding hunting, but he soon had to return so we decided to meet at that same spot the same time the next day."
"We continued like this for the next couple of days with his grace sneaking out of his tent when he was supposed to be fast asleep to see me and me not knowing that I was actually teaching the heir to the throne hunting."
"On the supposedly last day of our meeting he asked me if I wanted to serve under him and I conceded after thinking long about it. Unlike most noblemen who had haughty and aloof characters his grace was a much calmer and subtle individual. "
"I swore my loyalty to him without knowing he was the heir to the throne of Algrim thinking he was at most a member of the higher nobility. "
"That night we also swore a brotherhood of steel and blood, something we did causally. His grace was the one who suggested it out of boredom and I agreed maybe because I had alone for a moderate part of a youth or I just wanted to have some sort of emotional anchor to keep me going."
"Either way I became sworn brothers with the king and I even didn't realize it. Not until I followed him back did I realized that my new-found brother was the crown prince of Algrim."
"So the point I have been driving at is that while I was born a noble I hadn't always lived like one."
"What about your father's death? " Iris asked.
"Oh that... I avenged my father with the blood of my uncle's entire family before I then took his own during the battle of the great rebellion.
They went against the king so I slaughtered his family in front of him before I mounted his head on a pike in the family compound." Aden added casually poking a few embers in the campfire. The calmness in his eyes with which he spoke sent shivers down Iris's spine.
"Truly as ruthless as they say..."
"What was that princess? "
"Oh, nothing! please do continue." Iris said with a smile.
He squinted, contemplating briefly before continuing his tale.
"Well despite being the future king's sworn brother I only became renowned throughout the seven kingdoms during the great rebellion. "
"Did you really slaughter a thousand men during the battle?" She asked.
"No, I obviously didn't. That was clearly just the exaggerated babbling of some drunk knight. Probably half that number, maybe a little less, I not so sure because I clearly didn't keep count, but I don't believe I killed a thousand men." Aden said still poking the campfire.
Despite him denying it the thought of such a slaughter was still mind-numbing. She had always believed that the numbers were blown out of proportion by the commoners, but hearing the real estimates from his mouth, while it was significantly lesser than the rumours, was still terrifying nonetheless.
"Did you ever teach your son all these, I mean hunting and all..." Iris asked with a hint of longing.
"Levi? Him? Scoff! If one day, I can get that she-male to leave his study and exercise without having to practically drag him out across the floor I would sincerely be grateful."
"He spends all his time buried in mountains of scrolls without ever leaving that at one time his skin had turned so pale he looked doused in chalk."
"Really..?" Iris was surprised. The son of the legend level Dark Griffin didn't like to wield a blade, how unexpected.
She never knew what Levi was like, she had only had contact with him before they were 'exiled' and she rarely ever got to see him except on rare occasions when they visited the capital and that was usually amongst a crowd of other nobles she had to socialize with.
Hearing he wasn't the valiant young man she thought him to be was strangely disappointing for some reason.
But the one thing she remembered was that he was absurdly handsome, you can even call him beautiful, and with his lean tall frame and the right set of clothes, he could easily be mistaken for a woman.
"Hmm..." Aden continued.
"That boy loves books just like his mother and so happens to be just as beautiful. It's a pity they never truly met, they would have been best of friends." He added with a forlorn look.
Seeing the duke reminiscing about something personal Iris kept quiet for a few minutes staring out blankly before she turned back to Aden with a pensive look
"Lord Aden... I, hmm... Can you teach me how to do these chores? I don't just want to be a burden especially now that father needs our help." Iris asked hesitantly.
"Why not, it would be my pleasure princess."
Although Aden was surprised he had no reason to decline such a humble request.
"Truly her father's heir." He mumbled remembering a similar request made by Leonard about twenty years back when he was just a few years older than Iris.
"OK let's start with..."
So that night Aden began guiding the former princess on the rules and tricks to surviving in the wilderness.
Meanwhile...
A few miles away from their campsite a group of twelve men lead by a towering halberd wielding hulk followed them tracking the little trails they left behind.
Although foreign soldiers might have problems tracking them in these lands, this posed no problem to the well experienced resident bandit group.
"Knighty, knighty, knighty! where are you hiding? Come to me I won't bite you, I just want your sword and all things shiny. "
The leading hulk hummed a rhythm he had so painstakingly come up with after ruminating for a few hours and he was currently pleased with himself, sporting a pleased yet surprisingly menacing smile.
The surrounding goons although disgruntled with Vlad's constantly playful antics refused to comment regardless, trying to keep a straight face without exposing a hint of their innermost feelings lest they lose their heads.
Seeing his wide smile the normally irritable bandits felt like they were been taunted to comment about how stupid his rhythm was after which they would quickly succumb to the death's sweet embrace.
Thinking like this, they all felt chills running down their spines. Wisely kept silent and gave this towering lethal mass of stupidity a very, Very! wide berth.