After an hour of training, Carter let the gun team sit down and gave them a break. At this moment His Royal Highness the Prince also showed up on the practice ground, followed by a woman who was wearing a hood. This didn’t take the Knight by surprise. Previously, at the beginning of the training, His Royal Highness had informed him in advance, that during today’s practice they would be assisted by a witch.
However, Carter hadn’t known that the witch would be so tall, as far as he could determine it with his eyes, she was almost as high as His Highness. But nevertheless she is still exquisite and good looking, Carter thought. Then he came back from his thought and let the soldiers stand up, allowing them to greet the 4th Prince with a salute.
“Your Highness!” The soldiers shouted and raised their hands.
“Thank you for your effort,” receiving their greeting Roland nodded, and walked around since he also wanted to speak with just Carter alone. But at this moment a soldier suddenly rushed in the direction of the Prince. Discovering this Carter frowned, placed his hand on the hilt of his sword and took a step forward, placing the Prince behind himself. Nightingale had been even faster to react, her hand appeared out of the fog and grabbed Roland’s arm. As long as the situation turned out to go even slightly wrong, she would be able to pull the Prince into the fog.
But then they discovered that the person was rushing out was actually Iron Axe.
And even more, he didn’t run to the Prince, but instead to the unknown witch, immediately falling down to his knees in front of her. Not the Kingdom’s normal kneeling on one knee, no, he threw his whole body flat on the ground, with his head deeply buried between his arms, “My Clan Leader!”
With this, the training of the gun team came to a forced break.
“First tell me, what’s going on?”
Back in the Castle Hall, Carter, Echo, and Iron Axe stood in a row, while Roland sat at the Lord position, he asked clearly dissatisfied.
Discipline, you have to always maintain discipline! This is one of the most important rules within the militia and now the army should also have the same iron discipline! Not to speak about seeing the Clan Leader, even if you were to see the King you shouldn’t move even a toe out of line. This is the only requirement, there will be always time to report later.
From the beginning on Roland had a very good impression of Iron Axe, but with his action of today, he could only sigh. So his final analysis was, it seemed that his inner cultural quality wasn’t able to keep up with his practical talents, he clearly hadn’t understood the meaning of the word discipline.
“Your Royal Highness,” Iron Axe couldn’t help himself to wait any longer. He wanted to kneel down, showing his regret. But when he was already halfway down on his knee, he was stopped by Roland.
“Stand straight and speak!”
‘Yes!” Iron Axe swallowed nervously, and then began to speak, “I grew up in Ironsand City and vowed my loyalty and devotion to the Osha Clan and the new Clan Leader Silver Moon.”
“No, Kabago, I am not the Clan Leader…” Echo quickly disagreed.
“No, you are,” Iron Axe retorted, “Your father and brother already died, in accordance with the Osha custom, from the moment of their death you became the Clan Leader of our Osha Clan. When I heard that you were sold to the Port of Clearwater I immediately went there, but I was unable to find you, I thought that you had … died.
“But I — ”
Roland interrupted Echo, “One by one, first let Iron Axe finish his story.”
“I will obey you until the end of my life, Your Highness.”
…
The story wasn’t complicated; Roland was quickly able to understand the general idea behind what happened.
Echo was originally a member of the Ironsand City’s Osha Clan. Her former name was Silver Moon, and her father had been the Clan Leader of the Osha Clan.
The people of Sand Nation didn’t have an easy life. Ironsand City was only able to accommodate a limited population, so every three years, each clan had to take part in the sacred duel, and the six clans who won would receive the right to live in the city, while the other clans either lived outside of the city, or went together to the Green Sea. These places were dangerous places to live, although they offered water, but the demonic beasts and sandstorms would cause a great threat to the Sandpeople. So during each Sacred Duel, the warriors of various clan would spare no effort in order to win.
Chapter 109 Echo (Part 2)
However, in the duel, the Osha Clan lost to the insidious means there were used by the Tribian Clan, not only that but in the end, even their Patriarch was killed and the Clan ended up being exiled to the Endless Cape. Silver Moon, the daughter of the former Patriarch now known as Echo, because of her outstanding appearance was sold as a slave by the slavers to a businessman from the Port of Clearwater.
Iron Axe with his identity as a mixed blood, despite being an adopted member of Sandpeople was not a real member of the Osha Clan. And therefore he hadn’t been sentenced into exile. But because of his strong combat abilities, the other clans took a liking to him and wanted to recruit him to their side. Yet Iron Axe who had over years received a type familial care from the old Patriarch coupled with the hope of saving Echo, did not hesitate to reject the offers of the other Clans. After a long and a difficult journey, he finally arrived at his goal, the Port of Clearwater. But he never got to know that at this time, Echo had already been sold to the King of Graycastle.
However, in the end the latter was rescued by a witch, who’d belonged to the Witch Cooperation Association; while the other disheartenedly moved to the West border of the Kingdom of Graycastle. Yet today, these two people unexpectedly meet once again in Border Town.
“Then what are your plans for the future,” Roland asked after pondering for a moment about what he had heard just now, “Do you want to return to the South, take Echo with you and revive the Osha Clan?”
“No, Your Highness!” Iron Axe went down on one knee, “I have already sworn to the Three Gods, that for the rest of my life I will always work for you… I was just… I was just too excited to see Silver Moon again. I couldn’t control my emotions, please punish me!”
“What about you?” The Prince asked Echo. “Do you want to avenge your people?”
Being asked this question, Echo also knelt down before Roland, “When I awakened to my witch powers, I truly had the thoughts of seeking revenge. But today I no longer harbor such feelings.” She bit on her lip and weakly asked, “Please allow me to stay here… I don’t have anywhere else I can go.”
“I understand. Please, stand up,” Roland said quietly, “You don’t need to act in this manner, don’t worry I won’t banish you.” He paused for a moment, then said strongly, “In fact, letting you achieve your revenge also isn’t impossible.”
“What?” Iron Axe exclaimed in shock, he was unable to believe his own ears. Echo, however, didn’t show much of reaction, after all, she had already let go of her hope of ever going back to Ironsand City.
“Of course, right now I’m unable to achieve it.” Roland waved his hand dismissively. He didn’t think of this idea on a whim. During Iron Axe descriptions of the Extreme South, he had heard some very interesting things — that this piece of land was hot and dry and that the environment had many strange things to offer. Especially the orange flames coming out of the ground that had burned for decades without going out. The orange fire was often times burning above a huge pit. And at the bottom of the pit, someone could see the black Styx flowing endlessly.