n

n

n

n~Swish~

nJosh plunged through the woods alongside 2 others while carrying a child in his arms.

nThey panted steadily and peered through the shadowy forest from time to time.

nEven with the clouds covering the moon and the Fall rain falling hard, the place wasn't entirely dark.

nAnd as they ran, they could hear several loud so splattering footsteps behind, stumping on the muddy terrain while chasing them vigorously.

n

"They're over there! Don't let them escape!

"

nDammit!

nJosh turned around and caught a glimpse of a reddish shirt, making his face grim.

nThese people had been chasing them for a while now.

nThere were about 800 enemies and just 3 of them.

nTo be honest, if the enemies were around 100~150, Josh felt like he and his men would be able to take them on.

nBut they were a thousand. And that alone was something they couldn't handle.

nSo their best bet was to run as far as they could.

nLooking at the 5-year-old boy in his hands, Josh couldn't help remembering the scenes that led to this chase.

n.

nEarlier on, they had been spying on one of the Council members, only to hear some shocking news.

nThis Council member was one of the people in charge of kidnapping and shipping slaves to the Pirates.

nThat's right.

nThe people chasing him were pirates.

nBut why exactly were they here?

nShipping slaves wouldn't bring them here, as the council member typically shipped them to a close-by pirate island, where the Pirates would then pick the package up.

nSo what made them come all the way here?

nSurprisingly, the reason had to do with this little kid.

nHer identity is a shocking one.

nThe boy is the only Son of the imprisoned Countess Yanya Shumo within the empire of Abian, in Morgany.

nWhy was this Miss Yanya imprisoned?

nApparently, her father was a famous person who created some ancient fighting techniques, which defeated countless others and brought fear to the Monarch of Abian.

nWhat caused even more chaos was that it was rumoured that her father also wrote out a design plan of something unknown weapon that could bring destruction.

nThough no one was even sure if it would work or not, greed still filled the Monarch and countless others.

nAnd so, as typical fashion, the Monarch, some nobles, alongside the pirates, designed the poor guy's downfall after refused to give in.

nThey looked at cruelly and wasted no time in scheming against him, hoping to raid his home and find these secret techniques.

nBut unfortunately, they couldn't find a single thing!

nAnd so, they turned their attention to Yanya.

nThey felt that Yanya, who was the only child and daughter of their foe, should know where her father hid these things.

nJosh had a hunch that she denied knowing where they were, which got her imprisoned.

nWell, they probably imprisoned her differently from what many would expect.

nMaybe she could be Rapunzel in a tower?

nJosh didn't know.

nBut sure enough, he was right.

nThey forced her to marry a noble, who in turn tried to woo her and pry her mouth open to find where these secrets were.

nAnd when things didn't go as planned, the man should r.a.p.e, torture, and beat her up, forcing her to speak.

nIt was a miracle that she could give birth to such a child under the dastardly hands of the Count.

nTo make matters worse, the count had 3 other wives.

nSo one can imagine her life there.

nJosh didn't know how she did it.

nBut just when the child was born, he was shipped here by her faithful guard.

n.

nFrom what they found, the guard was meant to bring the child to Terique.

nBut somehow, the duo ended up in Deiferus.

nJust like that, the boy grew up not even knowing his own identity growing up and thought he was a Deifer.

n

n

nHowever, his uncle(hidden guard) had always told him not to get too noticed and live a simple life of a farmer.

nThe boy wasn't stupid. He could sense that something was wrong and decided to follow in the footsteps of the guard. Always laying low, never getting noticed for anything.

nNow, the boy is 5 and has been living as a farmer ever since.

nOf course, it wasn't time for him to join the Deifer camp for training yet.

nSo he just stayed with the guard, who he thought was his uncle all this time.

nThe duo took on the role of poor farmers.

nYanya lied, telling everyone that her child was dead.

nShe even had her people look for a dead newborn baby to replace her son.

nAnd so, seeing the hard stone evidence, everyone believed in the lie.

nEverything should've been okay.

nThat is... Until 4 years ago, the secret went out.

nSomeone betrayed her and even told her enemies where her child was headed to... Terique.

nShe chose the Pyno contingent because the morgs were disgusted by the place.

nAnd coupled with The continent's sheer size, finding her son should be challenging.

nToo bad that she was unaware of many secret societies and how much people wanted to get into Morgany.

nThe Morgs promised the Pyno members that if they reported the child, they would get upgraded from rookie members to Lackeys.

nAnd if one was also a Lackey, they could make them Bronze members instead.

nHey. That was better than nothing.

nSo when many were given portraits of Yanya and her trusted guard, they quickly started looking for a child similar to Yanya.

nThey also looked for any man who remotely resembled the guard in the portrait.

nThe Morgs didn't believe that after threatening to take the boy's life, Yanya would still refuse to talk.

nThe pirates and many others were on the lookout for these people.

nAnd thus, the hunt for the duo began.

n.

nThat said, it was a council member who was less than a lackey in the organization who reported the matter, inviting these pirates here.

nThe council member had already killed the poor guard, cut off his head, to show as proof, while imprisoning the boy.

nIt just so happened that today, the pirates had come for the boy.

nBut how could Josh see these things and allow them to take the child?

nLooking at the boy whose face was burning up, Josh couldn't help smiling wryly.

nHe just had to be nosy.

n

"Quickly! Chase after them!

nWe have to get the boy!!

"

n

n