“Babo, you fight so much?” the little Jarot asked.

  “Yes,” the old one armed Iyrman replied.

  “Why?”

  “I fought because I fought.”

  “I will not fight.”

  “You will not fight?”

  “Why not?” Jirot asked, reag out to her brother’s hand, holding it gently.

  “I do not like it.”

  “Hmm,” Jarot replied. He wao nip such a dislike in the bud, but even he could not defeat his greatson’s adorable innoce. “If you do not wish to fight, then you do not o fight.”

  Little Jarot smiled, leaning in to rest his cheek against his greatfather’s chest, feeling the way it shifted, like the way Lanarot did with Sky every so often. He sucked his thumb, his eyes closing half way, as his sister joined him, the pair smiling at one another.

  Jarot held his greatchildren close to him, a hand ed around the girl, who he couldn’t dare to drop his guard around. “When you were still young, your babo had to fight in the war. It was not the same fighting. That time, I fought for you, my Jirot, my Jarot. You were still so small, and troublesome,” Jarot said, noting the way Jirot peeked up at him, smirking, before returning back to sug her thumb.

  ‘Hehehe,’ the girl thought.

  “I went t you glory.” The old man frowned, leaning his head back so his children would be uo see his face. He closed his eyes, his khrobbing.

  “Babo beat up Aldishmen,” Jirot said.

  “Yes, I did.” The old man smiled.

  “Daddy tell me you fight and fight, and you are s.”

  “Your father?”

  “Yes, daddy always telling me you are s!” Jirot said.

  The old Jarot gnced back down at the pair, a wide grin across his face. “Do you know that your father is my grandson.”

  “I know! I know! Nano tell me!” Jirot said, sitting up taller. “Papo is yrandson too!” She cackled as though it was forbidden knowledge.

  “Yes.” The old Iyrman smiled, kissing their foreheads. “I helped the Aldish against the Florians, but I fought the Aldish too.”

  “You take arm,” Jirot said, holding up her hand. “You did not take my arm, because it is my arm.” The girl smirked.

  “That is right. I took his arm, do you know why?”

  “He is bad?”

  “The brat from Bck Moon, she was cheeky, so I took her arm!” Jarot ughed wildly. It wasn’t the first time he had spokeale, but they had been so young back then.

  “Babo, I am cheeky too!” Jirot cackled.

  “You are cheeky, but you are my greatdaughter, so you are allowed to be so cheeky!”

  “Kekekeke!” The little girl squealed with delight and covered her mouth as she shook within her greatfather’s arm, while the little boy smiled.

  “Not all the Vianders were so cheeky,” the old man admitted. “There was the Viander of the Order of the Thousand Hunts, Sir Kris Huntsmaster. He was not so bad.”

  “He is good boy?”

  Jarot thought of the girl’s words. He gnced down towards her. “Are you going to bully him?”

  The girl smirked. “No?”

  While the trio cackled together, it was the grandsons of the Mad Dog who caused trouble within the Order of the Bck Moon.

  Jurot stood, holding his axe in front of him ready to fight. He khere were only two ways to calm a Northerhe first way, and the most preferable way for an Iyrman, was to beat them. The sed…

  There was only one person in their party who could utilise both ways, but it was a forbidden card to be pyed in case of emergencies, a way which would only bring forth a darkness across the nd.

  ‘I ot allow us to py the card,’ the Iyrman thought, holding his axe towards the Oathsworn in front of him, the pair giving off an aura, ready to kill.

  Adam remained sitting, his arms crossed, his fak. ‘Of course these guys are going to fight each other. Why did I think there was any other option? Seriously, how everyone be so…’

  Jane and Marshal Bck watched the way the pair fought, dang the dance of death. The Order was an Order from the North, meaning they didn’t send a Viao face the Iyrman, but rather an appropriate young woman around Jurot’s age. Jane was rather impressed by the young woman, barely in her early twenties, a already an Expert, and no doubt also far more capable than herself at the young woman’s age.

  Yet.

  Though the pair fought with great strength, and though the explosion of thunder rumbled through the fort, the young Iyrman, who should have fallen with such a great blow, mao strike back with an equally heavy blow. The differeween Jurot and the young woman wasn’t that one was a Rage Dancer, and the other an Oathsworn, nor that one was a man and the other a woman. The difference was that, when one of them struck true, they could use their Divine Smite to sy their oppo, and the other?

  Phantom’s magic exploded within the young woman’s mind, causio stumble backwards, and though she fell, Jurot grabbed her shoulder, so that she didn’t fall so harshly upon her head.

  “Yrandfather was not quite so siderate,” a voice called through the air, an older man, who wore full pte of dark steel, an amulet of a bck moon. The wrinkles upon his face were outmatched by the scars on his face. His hair was stark white, like that of the snow of the north which had begun to fall. His eyes were soft ale, like that of a father’s, but within those eyes, a measured trol.

  “Grand ander,” Jurot said, sheathing his axe, bowing his head.

  The old man removed the young woman’s helmet, noting the blood trig out of her nose. He brushed her face gently, sending warmth through the young woman, who gasped for air, before coughing.

  “Mabel, rest withiemple,” the old man anded, before standing up once more, g his hands behind his back, before his eyes fell across the Iyrman. His eyes were still soft, but as they passed from the Iyrman to the demons, they were suddenly far more vicious.

  Lucy frowned, feeling the intense pressure against her, while Mara crossed her hands over her navel, standing tall and proud, and ready to fight.

  The Grand ander’s eyes theo Adam, then to Jaygak, then to Kitool, then to Jane and Marshal Bck. He bowed his head lightly towards the Marshal, who returned a bow of the head, though even he could feel the sweat drip down his back.

  “Bloody Jarot…” the Grand ander called out the name, closing his eyes, reminisg of the past. “There were few as vicious as he in my time.”

  “Yes,” Jurot said, standing up taller, his lips twitg slightly.

  “The differeween myself and all the members of the Bck Moohat I had e across Bloody Jarot once before.” His eyes remained silence. “I was still young myself, a few years older than Mabel perhaps, when we crossed paths. He was strong, vicious, a Mad Dog they called him. In some ways, that is true, and I hear, in some ways… I misspoke, there is another who had e across him too.”

  A single chuckle filled the air.

  Three sets of eyes turo Adam, whose eyes had fallen to another, before he felt them upon him. He gnced between Lucy, Jane, and the Marshal, furrowing his brows, hurt by the accusatazes, before his eyes fell to the young Iyrman chug.

  It wasn’t just any Iyrman, but the expected Iyrman.

  The Grand ander he young woman’s red x, fnked by three yellow tilted kits oher side. “You must be her granddaughter?”

  “I am her grandniece,” Jaygak replied, certain who the old man was talking about.

  “I appreciate yrandaunt’s sideration when she visited our Viander.”

  “My grandaunt uands what it means to e uhe axe of the Mad Dog, though, she still likes to poke him,” Jaygak said, her lips f a wide smirk.

  ‘Fme Brand, was it?’ The Grand ander’s thoughts fell upon the pair of Iyrmen. The grandchild of the Mad Dog, and then the grandniee Brand, who had forced several Orders to e together in Aswadasad to force her away.

  “What brings you all so far north?” the Grand ander asked.

  “We have business in the North,” Jurot said.

  “What kind of business?”

  “…” Jurot remained silent, allowing Adam to take the bait.

  “Why are you being so shy?” Adam asked, right on cue, causing Lucy, Mara, Jane, and the Marshal to stare at him. “Jurot retly became a father, and I retly had my seventh child, so we’ve decided to win the nightval tour.”

  A silence fell across the air.

  An avanche of ughter erupted, tearing through the silence.

  ‘Eh?’ Adam thought. He had thought they were ughing at the group, but this was a different kind of ughter.

  “So, you had children!” the Grand ander almost shouted. “gratutions!”

  The North, whose entire numbers barely reached just the capital city’s numbers, held children in high regard too. Jurot wasn’t sure if he should have allowed Adam to uncover what he had sworn to hide for the season, but Adam, whose face was full of shock, gnced around like a deer in headlights, before smiling slightly.

  Quest plete: A Northern Wele XP Gained: +100XP: 1 400 -> 1 500

  “Isn’t it unfair?” Adam asked, sipping the drink, as the Northerners poured him cup after cup. “How he do this? He’s already s, handsome, and smart. Having cute children was my thing, but he took that away from me too? My own brother betrayed me like this?”

  ‘He’s gooo far,’ Jaygak thought, but she ignored he Adam was being since he had behaved for so long, and they were so close to North Amber now. They were but a day away, by evening, they would be at North Amber, the sed greatest city in all of the North.

  Grand ander Sebastian poured Jurot a drink, who raised his cup, sipping at the wihe pair sat opposite one another, remaining silent for a long moment. The Grand ander had already stated his gratutions, so there was nothing to talk about.

  Except for that.

  “You are as strong as yrandfather at his age,” Grand ander Sebastian said. “Perhaps stronger?”

  “Grandfather is stronger,” Jurot said.

  “Even so, you have yet to cause as much as a mess as him, and for that, we should be thankful.”

  Jurot didn’t want to mention the reason why he didn’t cause such a mess, but he allowed the reason to tio pin and to rant and rave about his children to the rest of the Order. “I have e to wiour and leave. We will not stay long in the North.”

  “Will you stay during the Twilight Month?”

  “It is likely.”

  “Allow me to warn you, for there has been some sightings of savagery across the ly,” Grand ander Sebastian informed.

  “Okay,” Jurot replied. “Thank you.”

  Jane and the Marshal remained silent, gng between one another, while the half elf showed himself to be a fool. However, what could they say, when they had seen Jurot beat a rising star of the Order so swiftly, a, somehow, the fool was sidered to be stronger?

  The afternoon, as the group made their way north, the soft rain of nightval boung off the stone road, the carriages stopped.

  “What are those?” Adam asked, squinting his eyes.

  “Ice trolls,” Jurot replied.

  “We’ve e across bears, wolves, but ice trolls? So close to the Order?” Adam asked, as though he uood the significe of such a thing.

  “They must have travelled through the mountains,” Jurot said, donning his shield. “They are dangerous.”

  “How dangerous we talking?”

  “There are five of them, so we may die if we do not kill them quickly,” Jurot said, holding up Phantom, swinging it several times to warm himself.

  ‘Why are they talking so casually when the ice trolls are charging at us?’ Marshal Bck thought, grabbing his sword, which seemed to be made of stone.

  ‘These guys are fug crazy,’ Jane realised, having drawn her bde midausing as the thought crossed her mind.

  The howling of the wolves filled the air, as the trio of awakened wolves eagerly awaited the impendih.

  These Northerners, they ain't so bad.