Somewhere deep in the castle of the capital of Hezra, Ilis Ilemo was giving a report to an old man with white hair and a red robe. The man had a crown lined with jewels on is head, and read the report intently.
"What do you think of them, Ilis?", King Leno asked.
"They seem to have a different culture from ours, but their core values are somewhat similar. They appreciate gold.", Ilis said with a smile.
"And what about their strength?"
"They don't have any warriors in the formed core stage, or even had the knowledge of forming cores to begin with. Which is a huge surprise, because according to the legends, they were supposed to be way stronger than that.", Ilis answered.
"Maybe they spread it themselves to protect their village from outsiders." Leno said, "Or maybe it is just the fear of the folks that created a story filled with lies."
"You said their core values include liking gold? Too bad ours is as well…", Leno said with a slightly darker tone. "What's your plan?"
Suddenly revealing a sly smile, the kind Ilis was no longer to be found. "I have and Idea which will make them listen to us nice and easy."
"I expect great results son. Weaklings sitting on a treasure is a misfortune indeed.", and with that said, Leno finished the meeting and sent his son away.
Reclining back into his chair, he looked out the window into the grey clouds outside and said to himself: "And here I thought that I would be seeing ferocious warriors, when instead, I found farmers and beggars. So much for the stories of my father, talking about the people up in the mountains."
With that said, Leno decided to call it a day, and left his study to sleep.
***
As the days began to pass, 2 weeks went by, and the village was restored back to its peak state.
The villagers were finally able to resume their usual lifestyle 3 days ago, and were more than happy to do so. They felt that the reparations had taken a lot of their time, and decided to focus on their training in the upcoming days, as they didn't have enough time for it in the past weeks.
Leigh and Adamas were the same. Even though they were lazy, they never lazed around when it came to training, as it was their biggest source of joy when they achieved new heights in strength.
Kita was training with the boys as well, and next to them, Liera and Silere were also training intently.
Liera was focusing on her magic casting, while Silere was focusing in lowering the noise he made while running.
As you might have guessed, Liera was a magician from the big Seher family, while Silere was a young man from the big Nibo family. Together with Kita from the big Egri family, All the eldest children of the 5 big families were gathered in one place.
Liera was training with an annoyed look the whole time, when suddenly, she lost it and started screaming in annoyance, "Aaaah, I really wanted to see the newcomers that day, why did I and Silere have to be on guarding duty! Adamas, did we do something wrong to your dad that day?"
The Kowa family was in charge of the security of the village, because although they were in an enclosed mountain, there would often be an outburst of wolves coming from the big forests surrounding the village in the valley.
"Don't know. You didn't miss much anyway, they were a bunch of guys looking to make some money.", Adamas answered flatly, too busy trying to perfect his punch to be bothered with Liera.
"Next time they come, you will surely see them Liera", Kita said in turn. "Then you will see that you didn't miss out on anything at all."
Silere and Leigh didn't say anything they whole time.
Silere was similar to Leigh in his habit of staying calm, although Leigh had to admit that Silere was leagues ahead of him in that department. This 1m70, thin boy looked like he would vanish if you didn't concentrate enough on him. His black eyes coupled with his black hair and pale skin gave him a unique aura, and talking to him was never easy, as he didn't like to make sounds.
Compared to this silent man, the loud, brown-haired Liera seemed like a polar opposite. Her well endowed, 1m65 body made her an attractive young woman, but thinking that beauty was all she had would be a big mistake, because she, just like every child in this group of 5, was a genius born only under the luckiest of stars.
"I don't care, I will judge for myself whether or not they are interesting.", Liera said, sticking her tongue out.
"Enough bickering already you guys, I really want to concentrate right now", Adamas said, getting angry stares from Kita and Liera, and instantly regretting his choice of words.
As all this went down, a big group of people approached the mountain where the village resided in.
With Ilis at the front, the group was making their way up the mountain.
Engrossed in his thoughts, Leigh was silently practicing his moves.
"I tried the path again after the newcomers left, but why couldn't I leave? Are they the only ones allowed to enter? Or are we the only ones not allowed to leave?"
As he continued down this train of thought, time passed, until a villager came running to the group of 5.
"Young heads of the families, the newcomers returned, with a lot of people this time around."
'Young head of the family' was one of the ways to address someone from this group of 5, although none of them preferred it that way.
"Really?? That's great, please bring me to them right away!", Liera said without delay.
Leigh retrieved his fist from the practice stance, and gathered his thoughts. He looked forward to today's visit, as he wanted to speak more about the matters of the outside world with Ilis.
As the group of 5 made their way to the village centre, so did some of the villagers who were nearby and the newcomers.
When the group of 5 arrived at the centre, they saw Harkon welcoming Ilis and his men.
"Hahaha. This sure is a great weather to receive you with!", Harkon laughed while grabbing Ilis by the shoulders.
"It sure is a great weather to achieve great things mister Harkon", Ilis laughed and said.
Just as Leigh was about to greet Ilis, he saw something, or rather, he didn't see something.
"Where are the carriages with the promised goods? Why do I only see soldiers? Are they only bringing the marbles back today?", Leigh wanted to ask what happened.
Before he could ask anything, something reflected the sunlight into his eyes.
A piece of metal seemed to reflect it straight into his eyes, and before he even got the chance to complain, the metal was stained by something and stopped that annoying reflection.
As the annoying reflection stopped, he finally got to see what was annoying him just now.
A dagger, drenched in the blood.
The blood of his own father, who was grabbing the gaping wound on the left side of his abdomen.
Before Harkon could react, the dagger slashed him diagonally from the left hip to his right shoulder, making him gasp for air. He didn't get the chance to protect himself from the attack.
He could only fall down and look in surprise at his attacker, the prince of Hezra
Immediately, some of the soldiers that came with Ilis grabbed the children that were in their vicinity, and held a sword at their necks.
"Good people of this village, we came here to collect tax and do business, but the king has decreed that you are not yet worthy of his protection and cooperation. You are to pay him in magic stones until you have earned the right to become citizens of the great nation of Hezra.", Ilis said with the same smile he gave them the first day they met.
"How dare you?! Release the children immediately!", Legolas was unable to protect Harkon in time, and was fuming with rage, but he couldn't do anything until the children were safe.
Ilis looked at one of the soldier and nodded. It turned out to be the short-haired soldier. As the soldier nodded back, he suddenly stabbed his sword into the leg of the child he was holding.
"Aaaaaghh", the child screamed in pain.
"If you do not listen to the king's orders, we will have to punish you on his behalf.", Ilis warned, the smile still hanging on his face, but this time, it lost all its warmth.
"I will tear your head off!", Legolas was about to attack the soldier when suddenly…
"Everyone calm down!", Leigh's voice sounded in the centre.
Everyone turned to look at him, and even Legolas shut his mouth, because the one who spoke was Leigh Emrys.
"Ilis, what is it you are after?", he said with a calm voice.