The Third Party - Chapter 73

3rd Person’s POV (12 yrs., 8 months and 1 week old)

‘So… What do I tell her first?’ thought Ken, while slicing up some vegetables, Allen and Glen beside him, helping, for lunch today, they were having soup and some steak, something light with a side dish of vegetables.

He can’t name them because he’s too lazy, but the dishes were of good quality. Of course, it was him who cooked it.

Fifteen minutes later, the three of them were out of the kitchen and heading to the field carrying seven containers, two containing rice while the rest were for the viand, the other floating around Ken.

“Here’re the food everyone.” said Glen enthusiastically as he was carrying one of the viand and the smell kept drifting towards his nose, making his hunger rise on the way.

“Don’t be too disrespectful to the food, we have to serve it first.” said Allen, Glen scratched the back of his neck after setting up the food on the table.

Ken produced out plates and utensils out of thin air and placed them neatly on the table. Everyone ate in leisure, the impending topic stalled even for a moment.

“I know this is hard to realize, but princess, I don’t mean anything by saying this but it’s true, the masked people earlier are your brethren.” said Ken, just as everyone was about to finish eating.

There it is, the awkward yet sensitive topic to talk about. It’s already out in the open, so why don’t they talk about it, the princess heaved a sigh, she’ll face this head on, she needs to, for she has questions.

“That much I’ve come to accept.” She elegantly put down the utensils on the plate, the image creating a serene feeling of her etiquette in dining. “I have a few questions if you don’t mind.”

“I don’t mind, you can ask anything.” replied Ken, glancing at his companions finishing up eating, and floated the plates that they were done using, piled them up on a corner with gesture of his hand.

“Thank you.” said the princess as her plate was also piled with the rest, Ken only nodded. “Since when have my… people tried to take your scythe?”

“It was about five months ago.” Ken replied. The princess nodded, contemplating for a bit, if her people had been bothering Ken from that time, isn’t that the time since she’s been here?

But is that important now?

“Why did my people think your scythe was an artifact?” she said, not to herself and to Ken but to everyone in general. Everyone was deep in thought of the subject, they have a certain knowledge about artifacts, but to associate it with Ken’s scythe was a little bit… odd.

It’s just a scythe after all, what could be so special about that. Look at it with it’s plain and boring structure and design, nothing new. What everyone doesn’t notice, were the light engravings on the scythe.

“What about you princess, why do your people think that my scythe is an artifact?” said Ken, returning the question back, not sarcastically, but for him, revealing that he has some knowledge about artifacts, would spur suspicion since vast knowledge about it technically wasn’t taught to them as of now.

To be fair, all his knowledge about it just pertain to the part that objects certified as artifacts contain immense magic and can spell the downfall or the rising of a civilization.

He shouldn’t be worrying though since that is also the extent of his friends’ knowledge about artifacts. The princess gave some thought of the possibility in the question.

“In my opinion, if your scythe were to be deemed as an artifact, it has to hold…” she paused as realization come to her.

“Exactly, my scythe holds a certain power of the moon god, making it powerful in general, and deemed as an artifact by your people.” Ken finished for her.

“If so, then how come we didn’t recognize it?” asked Celine, the rest agreed with her.

“Apart from the power I hold and the sheer strength it displayed, it was actually this scythe that gave me access to moon magic, my initial magic gave me the perfect cover up for you guys not to notice the abnormality of the weapon.” said Ken.

“Even so, an artifact should never be of equal power as the holder, better yet, it should be stronger than the holder.” rebutted Allen.

“Indeed, the scythe is technically stronger than me, but I used illusion and enchantment magic to deter its strength from leaking and appear as if it’s just a regular scythe.” replied Ken, his friends felt like their heads would explode from the revelation.

“But how did my people recognize it as an artifact?” asked Princess Lang.

“That…” Ken paused in his sentence, a forefinger held out pointing upwards, then touched his chin. “Actually, I also do not know how your people identified my scythe as an artifact.”

The group does not know what to feel of the said information, they indulged into conversation of the many possibilities why Princess Lang’s people recognized it as an artifact.

Although Ken does know who wants to take his scythe from him, he genuinely doesn’t know why that person would affiliate his scythe as an artifact.

Yeah he gets that it holds immense power, but isn’t that a given if you’re to be holding a prophecy, the one who would create such prophecy should prepare his path before him.

Starting with essential things pertaining to his journey, and in this life where strength dictates authority, a weapon is necessary for him as a bearer of a prophecy, and so, he only thinks of his scythe as a weapon, and slightly more than that, but certainly not an artifact.

“That’s strange.” murmured Saber, the others agreed as well.

“How did the dragons recognize his weapon as an artifact, and most of all, who recognized it?” said Riyah, opening the topic for conversation.

“I have a speculation as to why the dragons recognized Ken’s scythe to be an artifact, and that is if they had encountered such magic since ancient times or were taught of the knowledge behind Ken’s magic.” said Flin.

“I agree.” said Icarus, seconded by his sister, and then the rest, no one was surprised from Icarus’s indulgement in the topic, for he is surprisingly a diligent student when it comes to his studies.

“Well then, should we speculate who recognized my scythe as an artifact?” asked Ken.

“Well, it would be someone who has vast knowledge about artifacts, and preferably someone who has been around for a very long time.” said Lila.

“Exactly, princess, got any thoughts?” said Ken.

“Hmmm… I don’t really know, apart from my assistant and butler, they are the only ones I know that are old in age.” replied Princess Lang.

“How old are they?” asked Allen.

“About three hundred to five? I’m not really sure, I haven’t asked them about their age recently yet.” It comes to no surprise to Ken since Dragons are mythical and incredible creatures that have long life spans.

At least he knows that they have long life spans now.

But the others reaction would say otherwise, upon realizing that there were people of the same age in their kin, they brushed of their initial reaction and returned back to the conversation.

“Wait, I have to ask, who sends out the order to retrieve such artifacts in your kingdom?” asked Wilbert.

“It would be my Father, why?” the princess said.

“If so, then who retrieves the artifacts?” he asked again.

“Our soldiers specialized in retrieving such objects.” replied Princess Lang.

“I mean, who does he give the order to retrieve an artifact.” said Wilbert. The princess opted to say that it was one of their captains of the Dragon Soldiers but stopped herself, for if it was then their captain would be a culprit of recognizing the artifact.

She could vaguely remember their captain of the first battalion was there on her first month o living and studying here. She also knows that the captain was of similar age as her butler and assistant.

Seeing that the others were eager to know her answer she could only sigh to herself and comply. She knows that her companions would bear no ill will towards her or her people, but the slight fear was still there.

How did such a majestic being be afraid of telling their companions of such topic when technically as a Dragon, she has no need to worry over such trivial stuff.

Guess befriending people and breaking their trust is something that only horrible people would do, and she knows that she’s not that kind of person anymore.

“It would be the captain of our military battalion.” She said, pausing, waiting for them to uphold their judgement on her.

“If you say that, then…” said Celine, not finishing her sentence, afraid that if she might say the words, then she’s afraid that it may be as well be the case.

“In most cases, yes, the captain would likely be the one to recognize my scythe as an artifact, but I think there’s more things that we need to know before coming to a conclusion, remember, we gather facts first before making assumptions.” said Ken.

“Aren’t the facts about the Captain being the one who recognized your scythe enough validation that we need?” asked Icarus, this conversation was dragging, and it’s kind of a bit annoying to run around in circles anymore.

“Unlikely, there are still many things we have to consider first, for example, is the Captain the only one who could recognize an artifact? I don’t think so.” said Ken with a hint of a smile, thinking that his friends would recognize what he is talking about.

“Are you saying we ask all the other dragons who visited the village if they can recognize an artifact or not?” asked Glen, Ken felt like slapping his forehead.

The group was in an uproar, spouting words of concern here and there, the need to consider many factors if that operation were to be commenced.

Ken sighed to himself seeing the chaos before him.

“Okay everyone stop.” He held out both hands, effectively stopping them from bickering with one another, he softly retracted his hands.

“If we were to do just that, we’ll be consuming valuable time, what I’d like you all to focus on are the specifications as to who are those people capable of recognizing an artifact.” He said.

“Whether they are sensitive to overwhelming power, or their occupation makes them research and study artifacts.” He added, his friends nodded, thinking to themselves how could they not have thought of that.

“Alright, I think that that’s settled then, let’s leave this topic for another day.” said Ken, feeling drained.

“Huh, why? When we’re close to knowing who it was.” said Lila.

“Discussing about this might bring us in unnecessary trouble, and since I’ve opened this topic to you guys, I figure that you’d get yourself involved either way.” He said. The others jolted since that was what they were thinking about.

“Until everyone is strong enough to face the Dragon Kingdom and their political manners of accusing or bringing harm to their citizen then we need to bring this topic behind us, in the meantime, I’ll continue on defending my scythe from the Kingdom’s collectors.” He said.

“Are we clear?” he added, in a more authoritative voice.

“Yes!” replied everyone, knowing full well that once Ken initiates an order, it’s something that should never be ignored, or there would be dire consequences, they involuntarily shivered remembering their experiences of defying one of his orders.

They were not unreasonable though. Quite surprising in fact.

“Now, who’s up for some sweets?” said Ken, and instantly, the rest were pumped up and overjoyed of the mention of delicacies, even the stone cold ones could not keep their face from cracking a little bit, showing their delight of the mention of such foods.

‘Yeah, considering that they are not ready yet, this topic shall be something we’ll discuss about in the future.’ thought Ken to himself.

The thought of making them fight when they are still immature is not something he’d like to take, especially considering that they’ll be up against someone with political power.

Knowing that most of them are not that exposed to such world, it would be careless to hastily do so, Ken will have to slowly expose them to such.