Way of the Knights

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Alfred was confused, everything was fine and felt nothing wrong! This should be a sign that the concoction was a success, no? But once he followed the gazes of the horrified crowd, he immediately understood why.

His once fair looking skin was reduced to nothing but loose bag of flesh and wrinkled skin. He was terrified to find out that sudden change, just like the guard earlier, he felt nothing wrong in his system, not even an ounce of pain, yet the withering of his skin still occured and no matter how much he tried to stop it, he was powerless to do so.

What's more is that, these changes were happening from the inside, the reason for this is because he consumed the failed product ending up making this damage far more lethal that anyone had ever expected.With shaking hands, he tried everything in his power to stop it even though it's useless. He consumed pills, pressed his acupoint, used his energies to block the withering force, all of this was useless. In fact, it seems that those attempts even made the withering faster.

The crowd watched to see him go from a dignified middle-aged man to a skin and bones elder in just few minutes. In the end, because nothing worked for him, Alfred stopped and lost all hope. Suddenly, he felt like his life was flashing before him. He felt myriad emotions in his heart, the strongest ones are Hate, Unwillingness, and Regret.

"Aha…ahahahaha!" Alfred suddenly broke into a fit of mad laughter, due to the withering he's experiencing even his voice was affected. In the end, he sounded like a dying man.

"How foolish! How hilarious! Hahaha!" His madness filled laughter was extremely unnerving to the crowd, even the crown prince himself was a little apprehensive about this. Do not underestimate a man with nothing to lose could do. He had learned this lesson a long time ago.

"Unbelievable! Just a few hours earlier, I was living the life of a King! Unending feast, gorgeous women scrambling to sit on my lap, people fawning towards me and so on. I even thought that I don't need to worry anymore since from this day onwards, I shall live like that…and now look at me."

Alfred's voice was filled with deep sense of longing and melancholy as he spoke, his words struck a deep string on the crowd's heart.

In the end, who doesn't want to live their lives in comfort and riches? Who doesn't want to live like a Royalty? Who wants to venture outside and face dangers when your room is safe and sound? How many people really did care for the well being of the kingdom? How many people had done something about it? How many people truly had aspirations to search for a way to rid their home of dangers?

"Perhaps, this is Karma at work." Alfred's voice was filled with regret, "I understand. I am a sinner."

He turned his head one last time and briefly glanced at Lord Mort and his son. With a sneer in his face, he uttered his final message.

"I stole this recipe from Richard, the Vice Director of Pill Saint Pavilion. He was the one who discovered this recipe. He showed it to me with hopes of releasing it to the public so that the Pill Saint Pavilion could present another means to contribute for the greater good. On the other hand, I was seduced by the prospect of endless wealth according to the promises of Lord Mort. In the end I stole his recipe and betrayed him, leaving the organization to claim all the benefits for myself, leaving my best friend heartbroken. In the end it seems that I stole the wrong one, resulting in this…madness."

Alfred chuckled and coughed up blood, in his last breath he only had one thing to say: "Please tell him I regretted everything, and to make sure that he accomplishes his grand ambitions.

"With this said, Alfred smiled one last time as his body disintegrated into mere dust. Leaving the whole people present to stunned to say anything.

***

"It was terrible. He died just like that, he didn't leave an intact corpse." Anne said as she calmly retold the story she witness during the Mort Family's grand event.

"Not trying to rude here or anything but…" Paul paused and said, "He somewhat deserved that. I mean he stole something that wasn't his in the first place. He allowed to greed to blind his vision not realizing that he could've achieved the same thing staying in the pavilion, perhaps even more."

"I agree." Ellen nodded, "If the effects of that potion was as miraculous as they claimed, then selling it for at least 20 gold cards a bottle is enough. With how many people willing to buy such potion, he would literally be swimming in money in no time, along with the fact of keeping his guiltless conscience and the prospect of discovering more."

"Even if he decide to squander all of that money, he will still have enough to save some for future research, for hiring additional personnel to protect himself and many more. It's such a dumb move." Mark said, giving his personal view towards the topic.

"Oh right." Anne looked at luna and asked, "How's the matter between Clan Head Mort and your brother? I remember that things were getting a little too heated between them, unfortunately we have to leave."

"Oh they don't like each other, that's for sure." Luna said while sighing, "He had long since wanting to exile the Mort Family from the kingdom. According to him, if it weren't for the cunningness of the old man, they would've been long since gone. Now that someone gave him the reason to pressure them, you best believe that he won't let it go."

"I'm just worried that he's taking things too far. I don't know much but rumor has it that their wealth could easily rival ours. They have full control of the marketplace, anyone who tries to disobey them would get suppressed until they go bankrupt. Unfortunately, even though these nasty rumors are true, no one dares to testify since the Mort Family could easily use their wealth to cover their mouths."

Luna can't help but to worry a lot for his brother. Even since she left their home, it was always been him who took charge of everything in the palace. It also didn't help that his father had to roam the wilderness outside to search for things that could aid the situation of the kingdom. Because of that Balmung would undoubtedly have offended a lot of forces even though he was the Crown Prince. Who could tell if these people won't eventually band together to take him down? It also doesn't help that she could offer no help to him currently.

"Oh!" Out of nowhere, Paul suddenly exclaimed which got the attention of the rest. They found him looking over the window while smiling.

"He's here." He said as everyone followed where he was looking. It was then that they saw Raven walking towards them in a carefree manner.

"You're late!" Paul said as soon as he sat beside them.

"My bad." Raven said while chuckling, "Just had to take care of some errands. What are you guys up to?"

"We were just talking about the huge event that happened yesterday." Mark said, he didn't have to say much since Raven already knew what this was all about.

"Ah, about that thief? What about it?" He said while raising his brows.

"Nothing much, we just thought that it was too sad for him to that way. He made some really questionable choices but in the end, he just wanted to live life comfortably."

"He deserved every single ounce of it." Raven flat out said, "Nothing but a fool with illusions of grandeur. With a heart full of greed, he courted his own disaster."

Raven didn't filter his words. In his opinion, people like Alfred had no reason to remain in this kingdom. It was a good thing that Raven was basically hiding his identity, or else his fate could've been worse that a mere disintegration.

"Anyway, let's not talk about that. How are you guys doing? I hope you didn't go easy on your training."

"Oh please." Ellen spat when she heard his doubtful tone, "I've been training so hard that it's not even funny. I just recently came from sparring with some elders of the clan, with how much I bothered them I think that I will be losing sparring partners not too long from now."

"My dad's been hands on with training me." Anne chuckled with glee, "During his leave, he had been teaching me some things related to archery and even gave me some notes from my great grandmother's teachings."

"I signed up at some nearby fighting arena, obviously hiding my identity. So far, I have a total of 10 consecutive wins." Paul said.

"A Lair Hunter took me in as his disciple." Mark announced which made everyone gobsmacked, he grinned and continued, "He had been training me, and even signed me up for the Lair Hunters organization."

"I joined the Ruby Knights and became the personal disciple of the current Captain."

"You what!?"