The duke was eating is a slow dignified manner, a show of his noble descent, the grace by which he did it made it almost seemed like the blind fold on his face wasn't affecting him and he could see just fine.
Deep in his thoughts it took him a while to realize the duke was talking to him..
"Huh?"
He uttered dumbly which to his relief the duke ignored.
"An invitation has been sent from the palace. You are to attend the Dastrium hunt,"
The hunt.
He remembered Eliphas once mentioned this hunt. Before Ecieve became Quirin's capital, it used to be a hunters town. The hunter had a ritual where at the end of every year they would sacrifice their hunt of the day to the goddess of fertility and the hunt and pray for a better hunt the next year.
When Ecieve became the royal capital, the royals continued performed the ritual allowing the strongest beast hunted to be sacrificed and the king would pray to the goddess for longevity and prosperity. But like everything else with the king it was all a cover. Demonic beasts had started to move closer to our boarders for more than a decade and the king needed a season where he could hunt and kill them without raising alarm and in turn keeping the façade of a peaceful empire. The hunt would help in getting rid of the stronger beasts leaving the weaker ones for the knights to handle.
But only the upper echelon nobles and students of the academies were allowed to participate in the actual hunt.
"I though only the aristocrats were allowed to participate?"
"The king allowed everyone across the kingdom to participate, he wants to scout talents,"
"Is he expecting a war or something," Cerrise asked jokingly. Every noble in Quirin knew how paranoid the king was, anything suspected of being a threat is removed.
"Yes, the Nanook tribe has been raising an army," He answered shortly.
"But they have been doing that for more than a decade why is he worried now?," at first it worried many kingdoms around and even Eliphas had been worried when they started doing it because their individual combat power was equal to that of dark elves and their military strategies have no comparison.
Ever since they sent plants with untraceable poison to the empire as gifts as plain provocation, the emperor has been wary. Thinking of that made him subconsciously touch his neck, when he touched the tree the poison from it took a year to clear from his blood and it took another year for him to stop bleeding black blood. İt wasn't a fast acting poison. it took years to kill but his special connection with anything that has water made his body notice that there was something in his blood.
The Nanook probably never expected a water elemental in a family known for their ability in the control of nature. The plant was to be natured by his uncle until he Came into contact with It and fainted.
The Issue was so serious that, it affected the diplomatic relations, Eliphas was deployed to the boarder incase of an attack since that was an actual declaration of war. But nothing else happened. Nothing at all not even an apology
"One of the guards patrolling the boarder found a dead Nanook, he was within our boarders," the duke continued
"Either someone wants to attract their attention to Quirin or the Nanook themselves need a reason to start a war," Cerrise thought out loud.
"You are smart," the duke said as he cut a piece of meat putting it into his mouth.
"Any way why are you telling me this? Do you think that I'm weak and I can't use the information against you? Or are you under estimating me and my ability to destroy you,"
"No, unlike the king I am not stupid enough to believe that you are weak after all there must be a reason you are still alive after what your mother did, so I am telling you this out of whim,"
"You don't seem like a person who would do things out of whim, duke, is that truly only reason,"
"You seem smart you will figure it out soon,"
"Oh,"
"The people of the capital are preparing for the hunt, you can walk around the city an familiarize yourself with it,"
°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°
Inside the carriage the youth's cerulean eyes shined happily as he looked at the beautiful capital. Although he heard and read stories about the place, he had basically lived in the forest since he was young. He smiled heartily as he anticipated for their arrival. Blue eyes full of curiosity, examined every bit of the town, admiring its beauty, it was better than the books described it.
"It's beautiful isn't it?" a low deep voice spoke from beside him.
Cerrise glanced at the man beside him and nodded.
"I have business to attend to so İ get off here, the carriage will drop you at the town center and pick you up in the evening at this same spot. If you need to buy anything or if you have any questions ask your servant.," the duke told him as the footman opened the door, "These two guards will follow you, you can ask them for anything along as it is in their capabilities they'll do it."
He walked out and stood outside the carriage then waved and the horse man whipped the horses to move.
He was left with two people, the guard and also the servant who woke him up this morning whose name he had learnt to be Riau.
Ananke and Ruda were left behind to prepare his clothes for the banquet before the hunt.
After a while the carriage came to a stop and he was guided down.
"Is there anything you need master Cerrise?" Riau asked with a straight face. Apparently she also doesn't like him but at least she does it professionally.
"No, let's walk around first as you give me a tour,"
As they walked around Cerrise learnt a lot of things about the town, besides being home to one of the ten most powerful schools in Quirin, it was a hunter's port and an agricultural hub which wasn't surprising since it was one of the towns under Duke Merikh's duchy.
"Who is that?" Cerrise asked pointing at a beautiful grey statue adorned with ornaments of all kinds.
"That is the statue that honors the first elemental, Rayker Alarofil, who discovered the fact that humans were capable of doing magic and made it possible for humans to fight on almost the same ground as beasts and elves,"
"I've read stories about his adventures," he said looking at the statue.
"Yes, legend says he even made the king of the elves bow down to him,"
He walked for a while before he stopped at the place where the carriage dropped him and sat down.
"Can you get me a cold drink and some sweets please?" he asked and Riau looked at him suspiciously.
"You are not going to go where the crowd is once I'm gone, are you?" the duke must have told her something bad about him.
"No, you'll find me right here plus I'll have the guard next to me,"
"Okay give me a minute," she said as she rushed away, quickly disappearing into the dense crowd.
As he sat quietly looking around and not doing anything, as promised, a loud squeak sound startled him. He looked around and spotted a black mass floating on the water inside the fountain. The guard next to him noticed that he was looking at the floating mass and stepped ahead.
"Allow me to get it for you Lord,"
"No need to trouble yourself," Cerrise said as he waved his hand, the still water started moving towards him dragging the creature along with it, he picked it up and placed it on his lap. The black creature looked like a wolf with fox ears, its foot was broken and was bleeding, it must have been hurt by something ruthless. He passed a stream of water around it to act as support on its foot and almost immediately he did that it let out a sound of comfort and its pained face relaxed.
Just then a carriage stopped In front of him and he noticed it was the one that dropped him. İt was already evening. Just then Riau came back and they got on the carriage.
As they were leaving the town and nearing the forest he heard a commotion, there was a crowd a head and faint crying could be heard. It seemed like someone was being beaten.
"Should we stop?" he asked and Riau was hesitant.
"It's probably someone being punished for stealing, it happens sometimes and there being in the crowd could be dangerous,"
"Oh, don't they have a safer system for things like this," in the village thieves were punished by being told to work for the person they stole from for a certain period depending on what they stole and the damage it caused.
"It's hard to make new rules with the fact that the king does not like the duke," she said as the carriage passed the group who paid no attention to it.
"Is it okay to say things like that out loud?"
"It is not a secret, in fact most nobles don't like him,"
It actually wasn't surprising that they don't like him, a twenty year old managed to make a falling Duchy rise higher than ever before with power just enough to rival the king but smartly not enough to be a threat to the crown.
He had heard the servants talking about it when he was being given a tour yesterday.
Loud laughter from the upper side of the forest followed by a whimper similar to the one made by the beast on his lap attracted his attention as he slowly realized what was happening.
Although it was rare in a big town like this even under the governance of the duke the black market will still exist. When he was in the village poachers sometimes passed through the village security undetected and they would hunt the beasts in the woods, which was illegal to do in areas where indigenous tribes especially those harboring nobles, unless allowed officially and they hunted the rare beasts.
"Stop," he said and the carriage came to a halt and he got down, "İ will go and have a look." He said .
"Lord, for your safety I request you not do that," the guard said appearing In front of him.
"Don't worry, ill be fine and even if I'm not, aren't you my guard? You should be able to protect me right?" he said and the guard wavered.
"This place is different from where you are from they could just be pretending,"
"Have you ever been to where I am from?"
"…"
"No? As expected do you think I come from a tribe of barbarians who live deep in the forest with no knowledge of the out side world,"
"No , that is not what I meant-
"Then what did you mean?"
"İ just wanted to warn you of the dangers of the capital,"
"That is nice of you like I said you are my guard you can protect me, I'm sure the duke wouldn't hire weak people,"
"Then please stay close to me,"
"Alright,"
He said it with a smile but he has come to hate it when people look down on him for being from the periphery.
He used his power to cover the pup in his arm with a water veil and placed it in the carriage. He then followed the guards towards the direction of the noise and stopped beside a tree and peeked at the people. He spotted two men with black clothing bending over a dying animal.