50 Before the mission
Before Amaris completed her sentence, Brom had peeked from his bedroom door.
“Captain, do you have my cake?” Brom asked him with his innocence-looking face.
Vale turned his attention to Brom. A smile blood on his face. “Hey, sleepyhead, I got your cake.”
Hearing about his breakfast, Brom’s eyes lit up. He run into Vale and took the basket that fills with cakes and loaves of bread.
“So, where’s mine? Give , I’m hungry!” Asked Brom, a bit enthusiastically.
Ducking his head, Vale was trying to reach for the piece of cake intended for Brom. Little that he knows, Brom actually gave a warning to his mother. The mother and son have their own code, and right now Brom needed his mother to stop talking and not revealed anything to Vale.
“Here you go Brom, your cake.” Said Vale, handing his subordinate the cake that he wanted.
He took his slice of cake and took it into the lab. Amaris yelled at Brom and warned him about not getting any cream into her tools. Vale befriended Amaris just recently when Brom officially beca his subordinate. The old woman ca into his barrack and told him to take good care of her son.
Every other captain laughed. They saw her as the controlling and doting mother, not for Vale. He looked into her eyes and saw love and, concerned; he saw a mother’s love. a kind of love that he never received as a child. Vale’s mother fell ill when he was just a month old, and after one year of struggle, she left the world with a kiss of goodbye to her one-year-old son. His two fathers sadly passed away not long after.
.....
Georg, the na of Vale’s grandfather, is a very prominent alchemist in his day. He raised his grandson alone in one of the border towns nad Berzerk. He lived there with Georg for ten years, having to see his grandfather fighting the hoard along with other military officials, until that cursed day co. A day when Georg died in front of him.
“What is in your mind right now?” Asked Amaris to Vale.
Vale gave her a bittered smile. “My grandfather, I rember him.”
“Ah, Georg, he was a very good ntor of mine. We lost him deeply. Every high official practically knew about him.”
“What I rember about him the most was his wild nature. When my two fathers passed away and he was the only living relative, he was my parent in a way.”
Amaris looks into Vale. She rembered the day when everyone knew about Georg’s death and the news about his grandson. “How old were you when Georg took you in?”
“Four years old, I was in a temporary orphanage when he ca and pick up. Right away raising on Berzerk.” Vale’s chuckling, rembering how tough but loving grandfather Georg was.
“That was very Georg, raised you on Georg, one of the most dangerous border towns.” Said Amaris, reminiscing about Vale’s grandfather.
“Anyway, enough about my grandfather. You were going to say sothing to earlier. What was it?”
Amaris gave him a smile and then a pat on his back. “Nothing, don’t you worry about it.” Vale doesn’t believe her. He goes quiet but then trusted Amaris for now. The chief alchemist imdiately changes the subject. “You have a bigger problem right now. A bewitched spell is one of the high-level spells. She must be a high-level magi like you.”
Vale turned his head to Amaris. With squinted eyes, he then asked Amaris, “Did Brom never tell you? The girl is the exam participant, but not as a magi. She is a healer.”
“A healer?! Fascinating! I never thought she will beco a healer?” Muttered Amaris while she was in deep thought.
Vale saw a deeper aning from her and muttered, “Never thought that you know the girl already?”
A bit took aback, Amaris laughed nervously, “Uhm... Yes, Brom told about her a bit.”
“I see...”
“Yes! Now, would you like to help you break the spell?”
Vale rustled his hair and grunted, “Yes, of course, but how?! We need to encounter it with a high-level spell as well, right?”
The chief alchemist gave him a grin. “Not exactly. We have a potion, a very intricate one though, but a potion that could heal any curse.”
“Bewitched spell is indeed a curse! That is genius, Amaris!”
“I am the chief alchemist, after all, captain, don’t you forget about that,” said Amaris, with a scoff from her voice, “Anyhow, I need so many items before I could brew the potion, and...”
“And, what?”
“You need to tell your best friends about this curse, Vale.”
Vale took a deep breath and blows it in frustration. “I know, guess I need to...”
Before he could have finished his sentence, a knock ca from the door. Amaris opens the door and the mail deliverer gave her an envelope. A military assignnt just ca to Brom. Vale knew the content of the letter even before Brom open the letter. It was for the border, a hoard will co in Gaftan, one of the Bordertown, close to a vast valley,
When the hoard is coming, the military officials in the capital will take turns to help in the hot zone. The hot zone in every border is random, but a huntsman with a tracking skill will be able to determine when the hoard will be coming. Looks like this ti it will co to Gaftan.
“Where’s the location?” Asked Vale to Brom. He can see the young man’s hands were shaken.
“Gaftan, we need to go as soon as possible.”
Vale doesn’t like this. When they asked them to go as soon as possible, it ans now he said goodbye to Amaris and asked Brom to be ready in two hours. The young magi were nervous. Vale can see it. This is his first assignnt to defend the border town from the hoard. Even his mother was nervous. The chief alchemist was biting her lips. Vale left them with their own thoughts. This is a private matter, as they know the risk of becoming an active military official.
He galloped into his barrack right away. The bewitched spell, though, is a high-level curse. It is not a curse that will have a negative physical effect on your body. He postponed informing the others about the bewitched spell. There’s danger looming in Gaftan. While he pack his suitcase, Xavier ca inside his apartnt.
“Let guess, Gaftan?” Said Xavier, while he drop his body into Vale’s bed.
Knowing about his laid-back attitude, Vale just shook his head and continued on, “Yeah, Gaftan, did you get yours?”
“No, Henry got the mission envelope for Gaftan though. Guess that makes the two of you.”
Turning around to see Xavier, Vale actually was a bit surprised by it. “Henry? That’s odd. He rarely gets into the border defense mission.”
Henry, as the future Duke Spencer, has the avoidance credit, which ans that he couldn’t go to any orange and red level area. In the Valorian kingdom, every area has its own color tag, with the blue area as the lowest dangerous level and the red area as the most dangerous level.
“Don’t worry, Gaftan is in the yellow level area. Our precious future duke will be fine.” Xavier makes a joke while he gets comfortable in Vale’s bed.
Looking at his best friend, Vale knew Xavier’s intention was to co to his apartnt. He decided to tell him the truth.
Vale took a glance at Xavier, “Henry should hear about this.”
A smirk ca to Xavier’s face. “Finally, took you a bit to realize.”
Vale throws Xavier a pillow. The huntsman laughed and run away through the door. Afterward, Henry, Xavier, and also Vale were sitting in the living room of Vale’s apartnt. Henry got bored and just lounging, not for Xavier, he was waiting for it since last night.
“I heard you wanted to talk to us. What is it?” Said Henry to Vale.
Vale took a glance at Xavier, “Yes, it’s about sothing that got into my mind since our confession at the bar.”
“Confession? What did you an by our confession?” Asked Xavier with a frown on his face.
Vale clutches his hand, he was in deep thought trying to create a sentence that could have a minor impact on the two of them, “You know, our confession about our attraction to Anne, I... I sense sothing was peculiar about it, so I tested it.”
Henry curses and glares at Vale. “F*ck, that touch, you’ve used it, aren’t you?!”
Xavier looked at the two of them. He was confused and fed up with the hidden aning, “Speak clearly you two!” Shouted Xavier. That makes Henry and Vale turn their head to Xavier, “Now, tell , what were you exactly doing last night, Vale, what kind of liquid that you handed to Silver Hawk?”
“Amore potion.” Muttered Henry.
Xavier looks into Henry right away. “What? Amore potion?”
“Amore potion, or love potion. It’s a temporary potion to make you attractive to a certain soone, a forbidden potion.” Said, Henry. He was still glaring at Vale.
“So? Why are you having the forbidden potion? Did you try to use it on Anne?!”
Vale massaging his temple, now everything becoming more complicated. “No, I wasn’t Xave, I’m using it to test a spell, a high-level spell.”
“Don’t you get it, Xavier, don’t you rember when the four of us with Anne, inside Justice’s room?” Asked Henry to Xavier.
“Vale was touching us, so?” and then, he rembered a cold and damp sensation from the touch, “He put amore potion on all of us.”
Henry took a deep breath. “Yes! And he uses it to test a high-level spell. This b*stard without our knowledge tested a bewitched spell to all of us.”
Xavier was in shock. “No, tell it wasn’t the truth, Vale, the four of us... were we?”
Vale rubbed his face in frustration. His erald eyes looked into Xavier, and then he said, “Yes, we got bewitched into loving Anne.”
Suddenly, a sound of a fra being punched ca from behind them. The three of them turned around to see Justice looking so angry toward Vale. “What the f*ck? Vale!!”
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