[Chapter Size: 2000 Words.]
Third Person POV
Cintra, northern kingdoms.
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Madara received a purse of coins with Mousesack giving an introduction about his reward. "200 coins for the bandits on the road, 200 coins for the nekker nest, and 300 coins for the ghoul due to it being an atrocious beast. I still wonder how you managed to defeat one, after all, they are quite difficult to handle and usually witchers deal with this type of monster." He said, becoming a bit dazed as he examined the head that Madara brought, since that monster is very dangerous.
Madara nodded with his 700 coins, bringing him closer to his coin count goal to reach the 4,000 mark.
[Mission 1 – Gather 5,000 gold coins – Progress (3850/5000) 77%]
"Use this carefully, after all, with this amount of coins you are quite wealthy, especially for an 8-year-old boy." He said, unaware that the coins would soon disappear.
"Yes," He replied curtly.
"You can go have your first meal in the kitchen, we'll meet to talk to the officer later." The man said, and Madara left his lab descending the castle until he found the place where the servants and guards had their first meal in a large dining hall far from the nobles in the castle and the royal family.
Madara entered the place quietly while many turned towards him, some curious not knowing who he was, while others gossiped about him.
"It's him! The boy who entered the castle yesterday..." Said a servant.
"The court mage took him personally to his room and I heard he was summoned early in the morning." Another spoke.
"Really, who is he?" Someone curiously asked among the women.
"Nobody knows..." Some said.
Meanwhile, at another table...
"Is he the one who was with the princess...?" Said a guard.
"Yes, my fiancée told me it was him. A boy the age of Princess Cirilla, with black hair and eyes and a very serious face, not looking like a child at all." Said the man, the personal servant's fiancé of Cirilla.
"How strange... who is this boy to be so close to the princess?" One from the group of soldiers eating asked.
"Nobody knows, the boy is a mystery and there's a rumor that he had an audience with the queen! Or at least that's what the soldiers heard from the royal guards." One concluded.
Madara, not caring about the stares, took a bread with a pot of sauce and went to a table alone to eat, not wanting to mingle with these strange people.
He also wasn't bothered, despite many pointing at him while they talked, he finished eating and finally left his table, to meet Mousesack and the royal guard.
As he was leaving with some servants along with him, a servant approached him. "Are you Madara? Lord Mousesack asks for your presence in the commander of the royal guard's room." She said, Madara nodded following the woman as she led him through this unknown castle to him.
He was finally led to a tower where the commander of the guard lived after a silent path with the servant. "You may enter." She suggested as Mousesack had spoken and Madara went ahead.
She still couldn't imagine why a child would be summoned to talk with the wizard and Lord commander and didn't have the courage to ask, but it would certainly make for good gossip as soon as she left here.
Madara approached the door and opened it, revealing a place where an old warrior lived, in front of him were 3 people, Mousesack, a man wearing armor with shoulder pads more elaborate than the royal guards, the man was middle-aged with graying hair, by his side was a common royal guard like any other that Madara had seen.
The gray-haired man, who must be the Lord Commander of the Royal Guard of Cintra, looked at Madara curiously, studying him patiently as he approached them.
"Madara, come here. We're discussing matters of interest to you." Mousesack spoke asking Madara to come closer.
"Is this the boy with special abilities that you mentioned? He looks common... You said he can fight like a witcher?" The more gray-haired man spoke, although he was not older than the mage, since mages generally freeze their appearance and live much longer than ordinary people.
"Yes, this is Madara Uchiha, the exceptional boy I've talked about. Madara, let me introduce you to Sir Varys Current. The Current family is a famous one that has produced many knights of Cintra, many of them becoming Lord Commanders of the royal guard for hundreds of years. Besides being the best blade we have in Cintra, he is an excellent leader, even accompanying Queen Calanthe on the battlefield." He introduced.
"I'm just fulfilling my family's role and doing what I was born to do," he said with a modest tone.
"Beside us, we have Sir Charles Peril, one of the 10 royal guards under the command of Sir Varys," he introduced while the mentioned man remained silent, observing Madara. He was about 25 years old and must come from a noble family, though not a very well-known one, if Madara were to guess.
Madara nodded his head without speaking a word to greet them. "As you say, he is quite silent... Like a witcher..." Sir Varys spoke with a small smile, seeing that this child did not seem like one, as Princess Cirilla is always lively and energetic, while Madara appeared controlled and reserved.
"Anyway... Let's get to the main subject..." Mousesack spoke and turned his attention to Madara. "We have been dealing with the disappearance of children since the incident in the southern part of the city," he said.
"Is this boy the one who destroyed two entire gangs?" Sir Charles spoke with a severe tone. "Is he not a threat, should we trust him?" the man spoke.
"Certainly, Madara has done things quite impossible for a child, but I trust the boy. He has done some work for the crown that I place my faith in him," Mousesack spoke calmly, not minding the cautious and hostile tone of the guard.
"But..." The guard was about to speak again, but his commander interrupted him.
"I am as surprised as you are, Sir Charles, and I understand your caution, but if Mousesack trusts the boy, there is no reason to act like this. Moreover, our queen has allowed him to stay here," Sir Varys spoke with a commanding tone while explaining his thoughts. It's clear that Madara cannot be a normal person when he is a child killing dozens of people, but he had to respect the trust placed by Lord Mousesack and the queen herself, just to be vigilant that the boy was not a threat to the royal family and the kingdom, after all, he would act if it were the case as is the duty of his oath to this kingdom.
Mousesack smiled, before continuing. "Back to the matter at hand, you know there are still 2 gangs operating. We are trying to gather some information and have detained several gangsters and outlaws from the areas, but we are certainly having difficulty. After all, the mage you faced is already aware of the information and is cautious. I can't even locate him, and he has placed mental traps on people we believed knew valuable information," Mousesack commented and asked Madara to look at the map.
"Do you see these points?" he asked.
"Yes," Madara responded calmly. He was not at all perturbed about the discussion among the royal guards, while now looking at the map of the city of Cintra with several points marked.
"These are all the hideouts we've discovered from the other two gangs, but there are still many suspicious places we haven't proven to be gang-operated and places we don't yet know," he said before continuing. "They seem cautious, after all, there have been no more child disappearances, so you managed to give the mage a good scare, but we haven't caught him yet," he concluded.
"So you want to conduct an operation to investigate these places," Madara spoke calmly.
"Yes, our royal guards believe that a direct attack would be the best choice, but given your last performance, I believe it would be much easier for us to act in small groups until we uncover the entire gang network. After all, the northern gang has many powerful nobles, and we cannot simply act against them without proof in a court; that would be a big problem for the crown," Mousesack spoke, and Madara was already aware of what his next words would be.
"That's why I believe you'll be perfect for this. I'm not a fan of sending a child on this kind of mission, but given your record and having a chance to prove your worth, I'm sure the crown will be very pleased with this type of mission being completed, perfectly if possible," he said, hoping Madara would be his best play for this type of situation. After all, besides gathering information and evidence, the boy seemed to be an expert in entering places unnoticed from what he had observed in the last events, much better than a witcher and he's as strong as one in combat, having the ability to cast flames from his mouth, so Madara would be perfect.
"I can do this, just give me all the information gathered, I can handle them," Madara spoke calmly, after all, what would this be for him... And yet, he wanted a rematch against that mage and what he did with the old acquaintances from the orphanage, after all, even regaining his memories as a child, everything he lived here was him.
"I hope this is a good choice..." Sir Charles commented softly.
"Well, I still disagree with this approach, after all, it could compromise the entire operation if the boy failed, which I still find impossible for a boy," Sir Varys commented, but Mousesack gave his opinion.
"I assure you, Lord Commander, we wouldn't be seeing suspects today or have had such a large child trafficking issue if it wasn't for this boy, so trust him. You already know he managed to destroy two entire gangs and alone, fought with the mage we're searching for and survived. If that doesn't prove something, I don't know what could," Mousesack was firm in entrusting Madara with this task.
"Alright, I'll trust your judgment," Sir Varys said. He looked at Madara before continuing. "You will have a few days, after all, we can't wait forever and once you have gathered all the information you can, we'll act against all the locations and hideouts of these outlaws," he said, and Madara nodded.
"That's sufficient," Madara said.
"Good, now I would like you not to depart soon, I'd like to see the sword skills of the Boy that Lord Mousesack has been praising lately. You use a sword, right?" he asked with a smile, already knowing the answer.
"Yes," Madara spoke, unoffended by the tone.
"That's good, I'd like you to accompany me to the royal guard's training courtyard by the end of this morning. I want to see what you're truly capable of," he declared.
He might be the best sword in Cintra and was challenging a boy, but he was quite curious about his skills after everything he'd heard and if that was true, and he might even fight seriously. Sir Varys, despite being cautious with Madara, after all, no child should be like this, knew the thoughts of sponsoring someone with such strength at a young age could gain the loyalty of a great warrior or even tie Cintra to the name of a legend in the future, so he wanted to test him.
"..." Madara did not respond, but followed the man outside for a friendly sword fight with him.