Chapter 52 - Chapter 52: The Son - Interlude

Chapter 52: The Son – Interlude

The town of Caldaria is a reasonably sized town comprising mostly of humans and a few other races. It is connected to the town of Cassus, via a well-trodden road, where close to halfway down this road, there is a branching path that leads to Yoban’s village.

Within this town resides the lord who reigns over the area, who was currently sitting in his study doing some paperwork, when one of his guards rushed in.

“My lord. I have grave news.”

Lord Abern was in his late forties and the signs of age clearly showed on his face. He had been in power as the lord of the town for a good fifteen years. His father had been in power before him and passed his mantle on his deathbed.

But, before Lord Abern was a lord, he had been a soldier, joining the military might of the King. He had been trained in combat by some of the best teachers the royal capital had to offer, and quickly rose through the ranks. He had taken part in skirmishes with rebels from various regions, bandits attacking the surrounding areas and monsters that had encroached on their territory.

And he lived for it.

But for Lord Abern, it ended too quickly. During one such skirmish, he was injured by a bandit of some skill, the injury destroying his ability to wield a weapon, destroying his career in one fell swoop.

Because of this, he was made to retire from the ranks and was sent back to his hometown of Caldaria, where soon after, his father passes away.

Since then, he had done well in leading the town, seeing it as a new venture to jump into. But as time went on, the excitement of it all waned. Each day that passed ended up being similar to the last. Nothing really changed. It was too…peaceful.

Only a few good things occurred for Lord Abern in his time ruling. He married a year or so after his father passed, to a lovely woman who ended up baring his child. He was happy for a time, but an attack on her carriage as she was heading to an event in another town, ruined that for him. Her carriage was attacked by a group of beast-kin and his wife ended up taking an arrow to the chest during the raid. Lord Abern’s son was two years old when his wife passed, leaving him to wallow in despair as he tried his best to raise his son.

After that, for the rest of the years that he ruled, aside from the perpetrators who killed his wife being captured and executed, again not much of anything happened. Where many would rejoice at this, Lord Abern loathed the experience. He was meant to lead people into battle and win wars, not sit behind a desk all day signing trade agreements and listening to minor nobles complain about one another.

So one day, he decided to do something about it. He wanted to relive his glory days in some way, and not die from boredom as a decrepit old man. With his injury and the…peace that plagued the town, there was not much he could do, so…he decided to mess with that peace and try to bring some action back into his life. He began to dabble in the criminal world.

He was a born tactician and was able to make a name for himself quickly in the criminal underworld rising up the ranks to the top, all the while making sure no one knew he was also the lord of the town. He became the true ruler of his town, being in control of everything, and no one knew it. He felt powerful, and he didn’t want to stop.

At one point he also remarried a woman a lot young than himself. It was by no means romantic, only using it as a way to gain the power that her family could offer him. He all but left her to fend for herself within his home, taking more pleasure in focusing on his son and criminal activities than on her.

She did try to engage with him, but he made sure to keep her at arm’s length. She was not of his blood and he did not trust her, opting not to reveal the other half of his life to her.

As he got older, he looked to the future and realised that he didn’t want all his hard work to just be lost when he died. So, to ensure that didn’t happen, he made sure his son, his heir, was involved with both sides of his life. His son grew to be a fine young man, strong, fit and loyal, all the while being an integral part of his father’s criminal activities. Even going so far as to adopt his father’s prejudices, such as his hatred for beast-kin.

Lord Abern was now very happy with his life. But all that was shattered, by the message he was about to receive.

“Yes, what is it?”

“My lord. I am sorry to say this but…your son is dead.”

“What?!” Lord Abern shouted as he sprung up from his chair, knocking it to the ground. “What happened?!”

“I was informed by the family of one of your son’s friends. It would seem that while on their hunting trip, they were attacked by an Orc. It managed to drug them and then killed your son. After leaving, beast-kin then happened upon them, who then imprisoned and sold them.”

Lord Abern was in shock. His son was a brilliant fighter. How had he been beaten by an Orc of all things? And what is an Orc doing here anyway? They haven’t seen any in ages.

And then there was the beast-kin. In his own words, they were disgusting and vile for what they did to his wife. It did not matter that it was only a few that had done it, in his book they were all bad. Which was why he came up with the hunting trip.

He knew of the beast-kin trading village, and always hated that humans journeyed there to trade. So, he asked his son to…deal with them. To capture and sell them as slaves and remove all of them from the village. He had plans for that village, but with his son’s death, they would not come to fruition yet.

Right now, he wanted to just send the soldiers to the village and deal with them, but he knew there were too many loose ends doing that. The story from one of his son’s friends had too many holes. He knew they had been captured because of the illegal slavery they were performing, and all it took was for someone to look into it a little more deeply for the story to come crumbling down. Which someone might do if he suddenly sent people to wipe a beast-kin village off the face of the world.

The only way he could think to deal with this was to agree with the story and pull focus away from the beast-kin. How thankful he was that there was someone in the story that already did that. Someone that he needed to find, in order to avenge his son’s death.

“An Orc! You can’t be serious. Put the town guard on alert, where there is one Orc, there may be a whole tribe more.”

“Right away sir.”

The guard turned and headed out the room off to follow orders. Where a short while later the entrance was then occupied by someone else.

“My lord. Is everything ok?”

Lord Abern looked up from his desk, where he saw his current wife, Lady Emilia. At the age of twenty-nine she was a beauty and was sure to have many suitors vying for her affection. With her cream-coloured skin, long brunette hair, lovely round green eyes and kind heart, she would have many heads turning. But no matter how attractive she was, she could never compare to his first wife or to the empire he had built.

“Emilia, what are you doing here? I thought you were out for the day.”

“Oh, er yes. I just got back a short while ago and saw the guard running out of your room. Is something wrong?”

“Yes. I don’t know how to say this, but it would seem that…my son has been killed.”

*gasp* “Oh, no. That’s terrible. I’m so sorry.” She said as she moved to hug him. But before she could reach him, he stepped out of the way and moved to the door.

“Yes. It would seem that an Orc took his life during his hunting trip with his friends.”

“An Orc. No one has seen an Orc for so long. Is everyone else ok?”

“Huh, oh yes they are fine. They were captured by beast-kin and sold off as prisoners.”

“That’s…But why would they do that.”

“I don’t know. They are a despicable race. Probably saw them as a way to make more coin.”

Lady Emilia was silent as she heard that and just watched Lord Abern move to stand by the doorway.

“Now, I am sorry Emilia, but there are some things I need to take care of. Alone,” he said as he held his hand out, gesturing to the door. “The first of which is finding this Orc.”

Emilia saw this gesture and quickly moved to the door, not wanting to anger him. She left but not before offering her condolences again, to which Lord Abern thanked her for and then shut the door.

He headed back to his desk and sat down and sighed. Lord Abern knew that he should take the time to grieve for his son, but all he could think about doing was exacting vengeance on the monster that had taken him.

Opening one of the drawers in his desk, he took a sheet of paper and started to write a letter. Once he was done, he called a messenger and sent it off.

All he could do now was wait for the response.