Birth of the Legendary Battle Mage

Chapter 32

“Bring the Lady accused of attempted assassination before the king!” A man standing about 4 metres away from the king’s throne ordered the soldiers guarding the enormous doors that lead into the castle facing the throne directly.

Ashia was paraded into the throne room, with 5 guards standing behind and to the sides of her, she’s made to kneel before the king. Something felt strange as she entered the throne room. Of course, the spell on her body that restricted her movements had been lifted by Uruak, meaning she was back to normal, but as she entered, her body felt different, as if a spell had been placed on her. Then the man who instructed the guards to bring her in following the king’s orders, began his questioning. This man was revealed as the king’s advisor. He asked Ashia the first question.

“Miss Ashia, did you or did you not attempt to assassinate the Medicine King Uruak?”

Ashia opened her mouth immediately to respond to the question, but to her surprise no sound came out, she couldn’t even open her mouth. ‘I knew something felt off, this bastard king must have planned everything from the start. Damn it, my mouth won’t even budge!’

“Why do you remain silent? Speak out!” Obviously, the advisor was aware of the whole situation, and he had no other choice but to play along.

The advisor proceeded to ask a series of other questions, but the response was the same, Ashia remained silent. He gave up on asking, as there was no answer given to any of the questions he asked.

“My Lord, it seems this one is a true assassin. She would rather die than spill out information.”

The King responded with a simple “Hm.”

At the same moment that the advisor was about to speak again, a soldier who clearly couldn’t stand it anymore jumped out of line to speak. He seemed angry, and even as he tried to suppress and control his anger because he was before the King, he couldn’t help it slipping into his voice a little. “Sir! My Lord! If I may, I strongly opposed to the fact that Miss Ashia is an assassin. She has served this country so well from a young age. Please Lord, reconsider and look into this case more.” He was on one knee as he spoke.

“Preposterous! You dare to speak out of turn and oppose the King!? You should be killed!” before the advisor could continue, the King raised his hand and everyone shut quiet.

“I have decided. For the punishment, Ashia shall be executed.” Ashia’s eyes widened a bit for a moment, before returning to how it was with a frown, filled with hate and anger.

“My Lord!” The soldier spoke again, “we haven’t even used the oath of truth yet, since it forces one to speak truth, wouldn’t that suffice my Lord? And we all know that the Medicine King Uruak is a very treacherous individual, even in the stories. How are we sure he hasn’t done something to miss Ashia?”

“Insolent fool! You dare oppose the King’s decision? You should be killed! Guards drag this ma...” before the advisor could even finish his words, Uruak waved his right hand from left to right in a delayed slicing motion. As his hand stopped and rested on the arm of his chair, the soldier who knelt on one knee collapsed on himself and died, shocking everyone except the King.

“I may not be the king, but that doesn’t mean an ant such as yourself can talk as you want to me. Hahh, I tried as much a possible not to kill anyone, but some people just have it coming.” He did all this, all the while still keeping the smile on his face. Many turned to face the King expecting him to say something, but he brushed it off saying the it was the soldiers fault for false accusation, and that he would have died regardless, because of his earlier actions. The body was taken out of the throne room by two others, as the King dismissed the trial. Ashia was scheduled for execution the following week.

King Bael and Uruak walked together towards the garden, while having a conversation.

“Why did you kill him Uruak? Can’t you follow a script for once in your life?”

“What? The end point is that the girl dies, isn’t that what is what is more important?”

“The plan was to pin the group of assassins on her, and frame her for being a high ranking member of the group, that way I could have dragged more people who were supposed to be killed as members, and just execute them all at once.”

“Heh.”

“Now I have to create opportunities for the others to die. Stressful.”

“Why are you complaining so much Bael? Th..”

“I even finished the trial and sentenced her to death earlier because you started acting up, planning to add the soldier as a pawn in my plans, but you went and killed him.” Bael and Uruak continued talking for a while till the sun went down.

Back at the cell where Ashia was imprisoned, she still couldn’t use her voice. It seemed like the King had intended for her to die a mute along with whatever she knows. At this crucial moment where she was about to be killed, all she had on her mind were thoughts of her precious brother and teacher, Julius. If only she spent more time with him. Everything cleared up in her mind. All the lies she had been fed with about Julius, and the clear realisation that the King was behind Julius’ death being clearer than it was in her heart. Perhaps this was her fate, tears rolled down the corner of her eyes down the sides of her face as she lay on her back with one hand over her face.

A few days later at night while Ashia was sleeping on the hard prison floor, a voice called out to her. She rose up quickly in a shock to find someone inside her cell. She still couldn’t talk so she could only stare at the shadowy figure that stood before her. The shadowy figure exposes itself to be Uruak as he stepped foward, casting a small illuminating spell that caused his finger to glow a dull faint green. The moment this happened, Ashia asked “what do you want?” To her surprise, her voice was recovered. She only thought of saying it in her head but coincidentally voicing it out.

“How about a thank you first for bringing back your voice? I am not going to waste much time and just go straight to the point. I’m here to set you free.”

The proposal made by Uruak sounded ridiculous. Why would he want to set her free? Again, the King has nothing to gain by testing her now. But still, this offer was suspicious. Uruak assured her that he had used a noise gate spell on the cell, so no one could hear them. He continued on to tell Ashia about the original plan of the King and how he wanted to kill others too. He said there was no ulterior motive in his current actions. But even though Ashia had only ever saw him a few times in her entire life, which was at the forest and in the castle, she could tell he was lying. She had no other choice at this point, if this was a trap, she would be killed. And if she remained here, she would still be killed. So she chose the option presented to her by the mischievous Medicine King Uruak, there was no other choice at this moment. Immediately she agreed, Urauk took her hand, and the next second, they were outside the cell in some alley.

“You are free, but from now on you shall be unable to speak. Of course you don’t oppose to this?” Ashia nodded in response as he disappeared into the darkness. “The night is sweet for escape as it is moonless,” Uruak’s voice surrounded the alley before disappearing.

Ashia escaped the capital in no time having regained use of her magic that had been sealed as procedure after entering the cell.

“My Lord, bad news. Ashia has escaped.” The advisor whispered to the king, with a very concerned look on his face. The fear that was in him at this moment could not be explained. If the king was to blame him for this incident, the punishment would be nothing less than the death of one of his family members, or even himself. Although he was the advisor to the king, it was only in name. Bael needed no advisor, he was just a dignified lackey of the king, a pawn.

With a fierce but calm voice, the King asked him, the advisor. “What do you mean escape? How was she able to break the lock if he didn’t receive help from somebody? Have you Investigated the guards?”

“Yes my Lord, we have but what is strange is that the lock was still intact with no signs of breakage, and there is no sign or evidence of her leaving the cell. She seemed to have just vanished into thin air.”

“Thin air you say.” Bael got up angrily and went to the room Uruak was in.

“Uruak! Explain yourself! What do you mean by this? Where did you send her off to? Answer me!!” It was clear that the king had completely lost his temper. His cool and calm self no more, it had been thrown out of the room through the window. The advisor almost s**t himself because of the kind of pressure the king was emitting from his body, and he wasn’t even close to the king.

“In response, Uruak stood and walked up to Bael, “I would advise you to calm yourself and talk to me in a normal tone. You know quite well that you can’t fight with me, not in that old body. You will die.” Uruak released his own magic pressure, completely and effortlessly suppressing Bael’s without even trying. It was at this moment Bael realised just how weak he had gotten compared to his peers. They both reduced their magic pressures to normal while staring at each other, one infuriated while the other calm. The throne room was grassed by a particular other at the same time, as the advisor had s**t himself.

“Now, why don’t we settle down and talk. Bael.”