Mystical Journey

Garen was escorted by four Black Fire Guards away from the Royal Library, towards Black Fire Palace.

It was completely dark in the Black Fire Palace; dark red patterns permeated the dark hall.

From a bird’s eye view, the room looked like a right-angled triangle, surrounded by round, dark red pillars, and on those pillars were inscriptions of different large black symbols with unknown meaning.

Opposite the Black Fire Palace was the Eleventh Palace of the Eleven Princesses. Twin statues stood towering against each other.

Garen left the administrative area, past the public area, and walked up towards the little stone bridge at the Black Fire Palace. Four Black Fire guards followed him from behind, all in heavy battle hoods which gave off a cold, stern air.

The guards and maids along the way all gave their respects to Garen.

To enter the Black Fire Palace proper, he had to pass through the Eleventh Palace first.

It was just dawn then, a maid in a red shirt was escorting a young man towards the Eleventh Palace in the open corridor out in front.

The man looked calm but had a hint of anxiety in his eyes. He looked handsome, but due to the contrast between his expression and his eyes, he gave off an odd feeling of disharmony.

As Garen walked past the corridor, he suddenly glanced at the maid escorting the male from afar.

That maid also bowed out of respect in the distance, even the man she escorted had to bow.

"Who is that person?" Garen stopped and asked one of the guards.

"Sir, that man is a guest that the Eleventh Princess wishes to see, he is a commoner from outside the palace." This male guard was surprised by the sudden question and hurriedly answered.

"A man meeting the Her Eleventh Majesty?" Garen frowned, and thought about his previous guess. "Have him leave the area."

"But… that man is someone Eleventh Her Majesty insisted on meeting personally…" The guard felt troubled, he was a close guard of the Eleventh Palace, and judging from the intonation of Her Majesty when she gave the order, he reckoned that he was someone important.

"Has he made many trips here?" Garen suddenly asked further.

"Yes…." The guard nodded heavy heartedly.

"In the future, do not let this person in without my orders." Garen barked, then strode away.

The four Black Fire Guards stomped away in their heavy armor, leaving a pressuring aura in their wake.

********************************

Pap!

Clang!!

Eleventh Princess Tina vehemently smashed a vase onto the ground.

"Die!"

"Die die die!!"

Tina locked herself inside the reading room, smashing everything she could inside the soundproof area.

"I’m so furious! Damn that Garen! Damn that Black Fire Palace!! How does it concern you who I wish to meet?!"

Shards of crystal porcelain were scattered everywhere on the floor, leaving the entire room in a mess.

She didn’t dare cause a ruckus outside. The Black Fire Heavy Guards were stationed outside the Palace, under orders from the Black Fire Palace to not allow anyone out without permission, and that if need be, to request so from Garen himself.

This made Tina angry to the brink of losing control. She wasn’t able to see Beckstone, whom she wanted to meet, now she was even placed under house arrest in her own palace.

However, she could not complain. In His Majesty Avic’s eyes, the Ten Princesses were not comparable to his left and right arm, let alone Garen, the expert of the kingdom, a top totem user. Don’t even mention house arrests, if Garen wanted her, Avic may not even voice a second opinion, and arrange a marriage.

After lashing out, Tina finally calmed down.

"Now what? I can’t even get out of the palace, they can’t come in…I would need to look into other avenues if I were to escape from here."

In a short few weeks, the Nine-Headed Demon Dragon Garen’s reputation had spread all across the kingdom. He was also regarded as one of the two strongest Generals under Avic, alongside the Garland Swordsman Edin.

Of course, to outsiders’ eyes, to the enemies’ eyes, the two of them were Avic’s most loyal eaglehounds. Or perhaps their status was much higher than that of an eaglehound, but functionally, they were eaglehounds without question.

Although Edin was a genius with strong capabilities, he paid no heed towards macromanagement, and neither was he an expert on it. Garen was different, holding tightly to the status and power. His Black Fire guards were mysterious, each of them exceedingly strong, and their identical Black Fire Wolves were all ferocious. Adding onto the strong equipment produced by the Royal Alliance, each Black Fire Heavy Guard was able to take on two totem users of the same level.

No matter who it was, if they want to take out Avic, They must first go through Edin and Garen, his two defenses.

**************************

Another week later.

Within the Black Fire Palace.

Garen walked into the left hall of the Grand Hall, walking in front of a small room.

The small black door was wide open, inside was a youngster with a black ponytail sitting down.

As Garen walked in, the youngster stood up, his face a reflection of joy.

"Garen, are you done with today’s matters?"

"Haven’t you gone to your grandfather’s place?" Garen walked over and sat opposite the youngster.

A small table was placed in between the two men, and on the tabletop were two cups of steaming hot red tea.

The room was filled with the thin fragrance of the red tea.

This youngster was Prynne, whom he had not seen in a long time.

This was the person who grew up with Acacia and only contacted Garen a few days ago. Garen had visited Prynne’s Grandfather, Benoc, but of course, his main objective was to meet Prynne.

This guy wasn’t just living a regular fulfilling life, even though he wasn’t a totem user, he had a grandfather who adored him, so the family would naturally take good care of him. Adding onto Garen’s visit was a show of power.

His status within the family was only growing in a linear fashion. Although he wasn’t considered a heir to the family, he at least had some influence.

"My grandfather went off to a hunting patrol. The weather these days is pretty good, with many continuous sunny days. A thought came to Grandfather, and off he rode." Prynne shook his head "Unfortunately, I am not a totem user, otherwise, I would be able to experience the outside world for myself.

"Looking for me this early in the morning, do you have something urgent for me?" Garen picked up the glass of tea and took a sip.

"Actually, no, I was just planning to marry Marin." Prynne laughed. This brat was much more matured as compared to before.

"Then, what about Andel?" Garen had an expression as though he expected that, that he was not surprised at all.

"Andel’s family is a tad bit troublesome. Most of her family members passed away during the assault by the monsters. Only her aunt and her are left in the entire household. In the past few times I invited her out to spend some time, she felt more and more depressed." Prynne frowned as he spoke.

The four of them had played with each other since they were young, their relationship with each other was the most tightly knit, but due to the turmoil in these times, each person’s lives had their drastic ups and downs.

If Garen hadn’t stood up for himself, perhaps his family would have been exterminated. Even if they had somehow survived, it would probably be quite similar to Andel’s situation.

Even though Prynne’s household was domineering, with his power and influence currently, it was already a stretch on his limits escort his own good friends around.

"Try to help her as best you can, I guess." Garen sighed.

"Which is why I’m making this trip now." Prynne nodded. "Andel planned to look for something to do in the palace so that she can be independent and not add more burdens on her aunt. Do you reckon you can get her something to do?"

"Entering the palace?" Garen frowned. "It's not that I am unwilling; these kind of things can be settled with a single word of mine. But as close friends, I really hope that she doesn’t enter the palace right now."

Prynne stopped for a moment, showing a quizzical, thinking expression.

Garen continued speaking. "Give me some time, I’ll let her know. The Royal Palace’s Administrative department shouldn’t have any issues."

"How long would it take? You should know, if it were just a regular position, I wouldn’t have even bothered looking for you. I could have settled it myself." Prynne raised his eyebrows.

"Of course it wouldn’t just be some regular position!" Garen laughed.

"She said that it’s best if she can enter the palace as soon as possible. Since she doesn’t do anything at home." Prynne shook his head, "Her household’s situation is not looking very well at the moment. Even if we were hosting her.. Without her own, solid foundation… You know, most of the things are still conflict come from within the household, we’re just mere spectators at this point."

Garen suddenly understood what he meant.

The issue with Nadel must be because of her own family’s passings, causing distant relatives to come to divide the inheritance. According to the law, doing this was the right way to go, but no matter how it was done, there would still be large loopholes for people to play tricks. She urgently needs a nice paying position to earn some power and influence in order to fend off the greedy vultures of the distant relatives.

"I can understand her problems, which is why I still feel that it’s best to arrange her entrance into the palace as soon as possible," Prynne said faintly. He took up the red tea and placed it on his lips, but he wasn’t really drinking it, instead just blowing it gently.

"So what’s the position she wants?" Garen let out a deep sigh, he had to say it out in the end, he understood that Andel was now embarrassed to meet her old friends; only Marin still had a close relationship with her. Since she was pushed to this point, adding to the fact that Prynne was out to proactively voice for her, the issue must have gotten to a troublesome point. Otherwise, she wouldn’t go through so many channels to reach out to him.

"As I understand, she hopes to find a position suitable for a lady," Prynne answered.

Garen nodded slowly.

"A job that suits the ladies.. The only ones left with such openings are the Royal Palace’s Treasury, the Gardening Department, and the Princess's’ Palace. Seeing that it’s my friend coming in, the position must not be low, naturally."

He thought for a while, "I’ll give her three positions; Assistant Supervisor of the Treasury, Botanical Head of Gardening, and Female Supervisor of the Princess’ Palace. These three positions can be decided by me, so go check out which one she’d like."

"Alright, then I shall let her know." Prynne swiftly stood up. He understood that Garen had actually done him a huge favor by giving Andel three options. After all, he was not the only one minding the matters in the Palace, there was still the White Silver Palace, the Princess, and His Majesty. It was also impossible for him to obtain higher positions.

"Rushing off so quickly? Don’t you want to stay a little while longer?" Garen smiled.

"I don’t think so, Marin and Andel are both waiting to hear from me."

"If there’s anything in the future, why not let them look for me directly? We’re all such close friends, why the formalities?" Garen frowned.

"It’s all because your status is different from before, previously Marin planned to bring Andel over to look for you, even if it was just a peek from afar. They definitely wouldn’t dare start anything funny like hitting on you, they would’ve been frightened to death." Prynne spoke without restraint. "With your usual vibe, that look of ‘whoever messes with me, dies’ look, who would dare greet you casually?"e

"That can't be right. Do I look that scary?" Garen touched his chin with confusion.

"The head of Black Fire Palace, the one who would bring around 4 black-robed elites around, who dons two-meter tall heavy armor, and kills people with just a smile." Prynne was speechless, "Are you aware of the rumors about you?"

"What rumors?"

"It’s said that you eat 10 virgins daily, your favourite collections are of the hearts of strong people, that you can kill someone with just a glance sideways when you were unhappy, that you have arms as thick as a man’s waist, thighs so huge a man can’t hug it all the way round, a bite that can pierce steel…."

"Stop stop stop!!" As he watched Prynne’s words get more far-fetched, Garen was shocked enough to immediately stop him from going further. "Who’s spreading these rumours?"

Prynne shook his head

"I don’t know, but it is what it is. Some things about you...to be honest, are really…." He saw Garen’s expression and didn’t continue speaking.

"All I did was kill a couple people, and the rumors are already starting to fly." Garen’s eyes squinted.

Prynne was speechless.

Just killed a couple people? The Fourth Princess was unaware of the current during a Black Fire Guards’ patrol and got into a conflict with Garen and a close guard of hers. She then used her identity to suppress Garen, saying that he is just the Royal Family’s dog, a henchman.

The result was that the Black Fire Guard killed off everyone in the Princess Palace, aside from Fourth Princess herself. Exactly 96 people were all killed in a single night. The entire Fourth Palace lacked even a maid serving tea.

Even so, Avic insisted that Fourth Princess publicly apologize to Garen.

Not only this, in the recent sweep, of whoever harbored any suspicion from the Black Fire Guards, almost none were left alive

In the name of rooting out spies, the Black Fire guards have swept through the entire palace once, and whoever had a differing opinion was executed by Garen. The kill count from the purge reached over 300 people.

In the eyes of a usually peaceful country, Garen had undoubtedly become the murderer! The hangman!