Ben staggered with every step that he took, he had one too many that particular night, but he didn't regret it, he needed to be drunk for what he was about to do, there was no way he would be able to pull this off while being sober. He had done something bad, and today he will fix it.

He could still vaguely remember the day, his father died. He was a small boy, around 5-6 years old, traveling with his father who served in a merchant caravan. Everybody was nice to him, all the common folk respected his father and followed closely behind him. He was their leader.

All of it changed that particular night. It started off as a pretty typical night, after traveling for the whole day, the caravan stopped at a clearing, to rest and spend the night. Cooks were preparing food for the group, people were erecting tents and his father was overseeing everything.

After everything was done, his father joined him by the bonfire, and they started having their last dinner with each other. It is then Old Hustus came along, the mercenary mage that protected the caravans from bandits. Till that day, Ben used to worship that guy, that old man was his hero and he wanted to become like him one day.

Old Hustus was angry for some reason, and he started taking out his anger on the other people in the caravan. Seeing this father, got up, and tried to quell the anger of the old man, but it didn't work. The next thing he knew, the old Mage started beating his father. Beating him to a pulp wasn't enough for that fucker, then the old man used his magic to burn his father alive. To this day, Ben still remembers the screams of his father, it still haunts him.

The worst part, the people whom his father went to fight for didn't come to his rescue, no one raised their voice nor did they try to stop the old man, they all just stood there, watching silently the show of his father’s torture.

Since then he had seen a wary of mana wielders, he used to think that every mana wielder was like Old Hustus, psychotic and insane. But somewhere in his fire of hatred, he forgot, that there are good mana wielders as well. Adui Hampshire is one of them.

That boy is kind, hard-working, and most importantly a very good friend to him. And yet when he behaved like a jerk and distanced himself from him. He got scared that day as seeing him murder those bandits brought back his bad memories, at that time he really believed that Adui was a monster, just like Old Hustus.

By the time he came back to Laverdale, he had realized his mistake. Yes, Adui was a mana wielder, but he was in no way like Old Hustus, he was better than him, he was more humane, and a good person.

He wanted to apologize to him before they went their separate ways, but he couldn't muster the courage to face him. Since then he had been trying to amass the courage, but alas, he had been unsuccessful.

But when he heard the news that Adui was moving to the capital, he couldn't stop himself, he had to talk to him, apologize to him, otherwise, he won't be able to forgive himself…

As Ben got close to the street where Adui lives, his heart started pounding faster, he was getting nervous. To combat his nervousness, he started mumbling his apology, seeing his mumbling and staggered steps, people started making the distance between themselves, no one wanted to mess with an insane person.

As he got to the intersection of Adui’s street, took a deep breath, and reinforced his will, he could not go back, he would apologize to his friend, even if that is the last thing that he does that day. As he turned at the intersection, he saw Adui’s street was empty, devoid of any movement, and just a few meters away from him was his friend’s house.

Before he could take a step forward, the door of Adui’s house swung open and someone came out. Due to the lack of light, it was very hard to tell who came from the house, but from the distance he could see the long white hair of the stranger, shining under the moonlight. And he knew only one person who had such hair.

Its Gizelle! But what the fuck is she doing in Adui’s house? Were they fucking? No, that can't be it.

Before he could make sense of anything, the stranger vanished in a blink of an eye. His eyes scanned the street but saw no one. As he stood there, he started wondering whether there was really a person there, or if all of this was just the effect of alcohol.

He then pushed his chain of thoughts aside, then started moving to the house. As he got closer, the street started getting brighter, he thought that maybe the sun was rising. He looked up and saw the moon was still at its peak, with no sign of the sun anywhere.

He then traced the source of light to Adui’s house. The light was coming from the upper floor, he instantly recognized the source of that bright light, there was only one thing that could emit such radiance, fire. His brain stopped thinking, while his body started taking action.

He ran towards the door and slammed into it with all of his might.

BAAAM

It was not enough, he came back a few steps and then ran towards the door again.

BAAAM

The door busted open, and a hot wave of air passed through him. He saw a raging inferno had taken over Adui’s house, everything was on fire. “ADUI!” he yelled. Trying to see whether his friend was home or not. Getting no response, he decided to look around, he had connected the dots, Gizelle being here and the fire, it was all connected. Chances are, Adui is still here.

He decided to check with the kitchen first, it was the first room towards his left. The door to the room was closed, he didn't dare to touch the handles of the door, so he kicked it open.

Lady luck was by his side that day, as soon as the door flung open, in front of him was his friend, sitting on a chair between the raging fire, and from the looks of it, he was on fire as well. Without thinking much, he jumped inside, to get to his friend.

A piece of flaming wood from the upper floor fell on him, burning his shirt and face in the process, but he was able to put out the fire before any more damage could be done.

There were several burn marks on his stomach, while half of his face was burnt. The frightening thing was his eyes, they were moving frantically, it seemed to him that they were the only part of his body that he was able to move.

As Adui’s eyes fell on him, he started grunting. “Save for it later, first we need to get out of there.” He bent down, trying to figure out, how could he put him on his shoulder, without pressing his wounds. It was then he spotted a pitch-black pouch and an iron cube.

He remembered the pouch, it was supposed to be a magical artifact, he remembered it as Adui could not stop bragging about it on his trip, he had also seen the cube before, he had spent hours working on it while they were returning. He took the cube and placed it inside the pouch. After safely putting it away, he turned towards his friend.

He grabbed Adui’s left arm to put him on his shoulders and with a big push put him he picked him up. By the time he came back to the street, the house was fully engulfed in fire. But he didn't stay there, this place was not safe for him, nor was it for Adui…

***

2 weeks later

Jarad groaned as he looked at the stack of papers on his desk, he had to go through them by the end of the day, otherwise, his boss would be on his ass. He was tired and hungry, all of his colleagues had gone home, while he was stuck there, scribbling tax documents.

He was getting a lot of work for the past few weeks, the reason being he helped his friend Adui. He didn't know what that man had got himself mixed up in, after he had helped him, Lord Howard, his boss came for him with Royal Orders knights.

They asked him all these questions about Adui, and what he was up to. He broke under the pressure and told them everything. Those knights ordered him not to contact Adui anymore, and they would keep an eye on him.

All of this got him really confused, he hadn't done anything illegal, the old records were junk books that they were forced to maintain, and anyone could take them. While Adui on the other hand isn't a guy who would do something bad, he was sure of it. So what was this all about?

The worst part was that his boss was punishing him, he was literally drowning him in paperwork, just because he took a book out from the old records, and took it all the way to Huston.

Jarad couldn't understand why was his boss so angry in the first place. He asked him whether he could take the book, and his boss agreed to it at that time. From the way he replied to the request, it seemed to him that he couldn't care less if any book from the all records was lost, so what was this outburst all about…

It is then he started hearing steps, echoing in the empty hallways of his office. From the sound of it, there were a lot of people that were making their way towards his cabin Soon, he was greeted by knights of Royal Order, fully armed to boot, there to take him away.