Darkness of the night engulf whole skies, leaving a whole moon sighted beautifully - it shines like a gentle light, like a pathway to heaven - giving little bright to those empty roads in the middle of Victorian buildings along the way.
The wind breeze, sweeping most withered leaves away to the side of the road, as if the Goddess of Serenia waving her hands gently. Slowly creating thin mist, covering the streets.
A faint voice being heard, whispering from the alleyway.
Two persons, both whole bodies covered with black cloth and wearing respirator masks, waiting for something passes by their spot. Their eyes are locked onto specific spot.
A black carriage being sighted with four guards with horses. This must be their target.
"Should we do this, brother?" whisper the young man in black - in fear.
"Of course! This time you do as I said! Make no mistake or we miss this one-time chance! Don't forget to throw sleeping gas spell this time!" the other man whisper slightly loud in older voice
"Alright, alright. I'm doing it. After you." he replies with annoyed expression.
The carriage approaches the crossroad, one guard sensed something, as something going to happen. While also feel shivering.
"I sense danger in this area, keep your guard up. Bandits are tireless especially in this night!"
"They would die by my spear if that happens" the other guard replies.
A sound appears, like a rock tumbling around the street.
A mist grows thicker, before the guards reacted to it, their horse neighing awkwardly.
Their weapons feel heavier than before, their vision blurred and faded away.
They are collapsed from their horse.
Those bandits quickly rushing to the scene, crashing the caravan window, and opening the door latch from there
Those bandits quickly rushing to the scene, crashing the caravan window, and opening the door latch from there. While containing their excitement, they opened the door.
They found a black chest, engraved with gold Insignia. It is the property of Kingdom of Akgardian
"We found it, now let's go!"
"This thing surely sells at higher price in the black market!" the young bandit responded
Suddenly the older bandit face change, from happy as if he got prize from heaven, changes to scary, intimidating face, looking fiercely to the young bandit.
"You fool! Do you have a death wish? If we decided to sell it quickly, everyone will be pointing at us directly! We need to be patient until guards are lowering their search. How foolish you can be?"
"You know, brother. I'm tired of living poorly with you. All you do is just slowing us down! I'm tired eating those stale breads it makes me vomiting so hard! If you don't want to sell this, I'll do that instead!" the young bandit swears at him while pointing his sword in front of his brother face.
And the young bandit snatches away the chest from the older bandit arms.
Before the older bandit responded, the young bandit is already a distant away from him.
His legs worked twice as before; he runs fast leaving away his brother. The older bandit chases him, shouting and yelling, calling his name, crashing into the silence of night.
Suddenly a gunshot being heard, together with a thunder sighted dropping to the earth fiercely. The wind and rain poured hard into the ground, breaking all mist.
A blood pouring from chest, with his big arms he holds the gunshot wound. It wasn't enough to stop the bleeding. Half of his black cloth changed into crimson red cloth.
A gasp can be heard, the older bandit was trying to say something, but it was barely heard of.
A young bandit twisted the neck, and he sees his brother struggling to run, feeling shocked as he cannot believe to what he saw right now. He sees everything blur except for one thing - his brother got shot directly on upper chest, with blood flowing from the gap of his brother's arm - trying hard to close down the wound. The bullet really pierced from the back to the front of his body.
The young bandit remembers a moment ago, while they were searching inside carriage, they were less focused on other thing beside the chest. Suddenly another man comes out from carriage wielding a musket, He is reloading his musket, about to ready for the second shot.
"All the time he was hiding perfectly, probably under the carriage seat. We weren't noticing him inside the carriage. Damn it! He's ready to shoot me again!" mumbles himself with gasping breath - while continue running
Still, he remains adamant, looking forward and running away from the crime scene.
Even faster, even panicked. Like a scared chicken.
The rain makes it even harder for him to focus on the road. He ran down to alleyway, jumped down the small river, and rushes through the bushes near the forest.
Groaning, he uses all of his stamina left with him, carrying the small black chest.
Slowly he feels pain in his lower body, he's shocked.
He notices a fragment of bullet - that came from one gunshot before - sighted on his side waist. Before he fully checked on his body while running, he sighted more guards in front of him near the streets.
He changes directions to the riverside.
Three of the guards seeing him running away from their post and immediately starts chasing this young bandit. The other guards soon follow the chase.
The pursue continues along the riverside, the young bandit feeling a lot pressure behind him, the chase, the pain, and the weight of the small chest. He decided to throw his mask to help his breathing while running. Unfortunately, the heavy rain doesn't make it any better for him to run, since the rain also somewhat hitting his face repeatedly. As if the rain water won't go away from his face, blurring his vision even more.
The guards, closing the distance at certain pace, keep running and casting wind magic from their shoes, to make themselves run lighter. The young bandit notices this and he also tries to use the wind magic to his feet. Unfortunately, he slipped, twisting his legs uncontrollably, and slammed his body to the ground, causing the small chest being thrown away into the river.
The young bandit is trying hard to get up and before he is able to recover his footing, the guards already stopping him with three spears aimed on the young bandit's head.
"Please don't kill me! I have nothing with me! I swear I didn't do anything!" He screams to the guard, fearing that the guards might kill him at any moment.
The guards lock the young bandit's neck with three spears, forcing him to submission.
"You are arrested for trespassing and engaging suspicious activity. You will come with us for further questioning under Security Council of Akgardia"
The young bandit gazes on the road, not preparing for what is coming to him in the next. He lost in regretting thought - apparently a lot of things he regretted. It made him not realizing that he's being escorted away from location.
Meanwhile, the chest is floating, following the flow of the river for quite the distance, and it ended up stuck near the tree roots clinging on the side of the river.
Chapter Prologue – End