Ten years earlier

Aerwald, the city where Helgar was born and grew up until that unusual day. Everything was indeed unusual, that day was unusually crowded as if the whole city was in one place.

Rio grasped Helgar from his wrist, pulling him forward, striving to push his way through the crowd

"Come on Helgar… we will miss the event." Both of them had small bodies, stooping down at times to sneak in a step further to the stage. Helgar winced his eye, pushing with his elbow through several men, trying to slid himself ahead towards Rio that was faster to the front lines.

"Rio wait, I promised mom that we stay home," Helgar said as he was ambivalent. Part of him wanted to stay. However, he hated to disappoint his mother.

"let's go back Rio." He said again, seeming to be more decided, even though they were finally three rows away from the open-aired stage. 

"Calm down Helgar. Stop being over worried" 

  The stage was shielded with soldiers. While the Aerwalden people were standing at the front of this huge platform, the back of the stage could still be seen, but it was only soldiers and a meadow. Why not? After all, the Aerwalden are hostile to the cooperation and the Kingdom. How crazy it can be, to have a free field behind the armed soldiers.  That was the plan, when things go unexpected, they could retreat. A plan B against the disadvantaged, armorless Aerwalden.

"Helgar, we will miss all the fun. Everyone is talking about this fictional power; we should see if it's real. Nothing is going to happen." Rio said throwing words quickly behind each other, his eyes glittered with delightfulness.

"Come on. Let us get closer. Don't be a sissy." Rio jumped on his feet. causing Helgar to nod and push even closer to the front line, to be finally on the first row, only the soldiers standing between them and the stage.

These soldiers wore the standard cooperation uniforms, long blue blazers, blue trousers, and white shirts—one of them with his bulky body looked down to the young little boys showing an unwelcome frown. Helgar immediately waved his startled eyes away, in a fear of being scolded.

"Look" Rio gapped as he gazed through the stage that was built over that spacious space.

But Helgar was not listening. Instead, he was busy sticking his ears between two women chattering right behind him "a power exchange? Are they going to return them?".

It was tough to hear them with all that noise around; he pulled himself a step backward, attempting one more time to focus. "Two hundred Aerwalden, they were sentenced to death." The woman's voice got even lower, making it harder and harder to hear "it is an exchange for power."

A moment of silence went between the two women, before the other woman responded to her, "this whole power thing. it cannot be true, something fishy is going to happen today."

Rio looked back at Helgar, while he was lurking with his small body between the women's dresses. With a smile, he hit Helgars chest using the back of his fist.

"Hey!!!" Helgar gasped as Rio took him out off guard.

"You cannot eavesdrop on other people," Rio said, giving him a teasing smile.

"What on earth are kids doing here." One of the women hissed to them in a loud voice. "What a reckless mother do you have." She continued complaining and scowling at them.

Helgar on the other side, could not accept anyone talking about his mother in that way. He quickly responded to her with angry eyes and frowned eyebrows before Rio dragged him away, "Ignore her Helgar."

An unexpected Loud majestic music came from the front, causing the woman to take her attention away from the kids and to focus up to the stage.

A parade of soldiers neared the stage; they were wearing different colored suites than the other soldiers. The trousers and blazers were long blacks with fine golden threads that framed the shoulder's edges. Golden buttons and elegant white shirts were worn beneath. They all had steady decisive moves that made the stage comply with their footsteps. Finally, once they stood in the middle of the platform. They spread into four rows, standing behind each other, almost ten soldiers in a row.

The middle rows stood still, while the front and the last one marched away in the opposite direction, to give yet ridiculous extra guard to the whole scene. With concrete, confident steps, the middle rows moved to the back to provide the stage's front an adequate space.

The very back of the stage had higher steps were five men with higher ranks were standing. Once the soldiers took their places, one of the higher-ranked warriors, that appeared to be the highest in status, stepped forward; he then moved his hand up to his jaw, fixing the microphone close to his mouth.

"Greetings everyone for this big day! my name is Ralf. Colonel of the Promesus Warriors." the Colonel said as he stepped closer to the audience. "This day is not an entertaining day; this day is the day where our highness will be gracing the people in Aerwald." He stated, the majestic music still playing in the background.

"In the last five years, two hundred men were sentenced to death in Aerwald." Colonel Ralf took an intentional pause and stared into the crowd, watching their disapproved, scared faces.

"Only by the grace of his highness they will return to their hometown" Colonel Ralf finished his sentence. While a loud, angry hail came from the people. Those two hundred captives were fathers, families, and innocent Aerwalden that has nothing to do with all of this.

Colonel Ralf was a good speaker, and he could present himself well. He knew that the people did not believe him, but he did not care as long as they feared him.

"Aerwald has suffered for a long time, and it was only because of one person" Colonel Ralf's voice was getting bolder.

"Naji Ozaki" The Colonel resumed with a confident voice as he stretched his hand back, looking at the edge of his shoulder.