'Til Kingdom Comes - The Banished Prince Vol 3: The Prophecy

Futuristic Lessons

I quickly hopped down the ring followed by the cheers of the spectators and somehow they knew that the Black Mantis was actually me by the way I walked down with Eagle by my sides.

Maybe when I waved my hands towards the screaming and excited spectators that they seemed that my demeanour was somewhat familiar to them. I laughed at myself for being so easily recognised even though with the full helm on my head and the pieces of armour that were adorned on my body.

As I walked with Eagle at the sides I asked him some questions, "You had shouted thrice earlier in the latter part of the match. Is it a norm for Assassin's to do that? Were you being taught back in the Shadow Headquarters or something?"

I looked at Eagle that had his half-mask still on his face as he began to narrate to me which almost shocked me and stopped me in my tracks.

"I had this talent that had been brought down by the Assassin's Guild for some time already. Whenever these shouts were delivered by us, it gave us a sense of rush and seems to empower us with some unseen forces."

"The 'Eviscerate' shout was meant to send a flurry of attacks but somehow it was blocked by you. In a dual attack as such, if it is been successfully blocked, the attack becomes halved."

"As for the 'On Your Knees' chant, it was a one on one hex spell which made the opponent move slower and also bring them down on their knees."

"This enabled us to deliver our finishing blade skill such as the 'Critical Strike' which had a 10-second dual blade attack which would inevitably annihilate the enemy once they are in that kind of vulnerable position."

I was equally surprised to find this out and I inquired Eagle where these skills come from and he replied casually, "I myself do not know where these skills come from but there was quite a number of skills that had been taught to us."

"Some worked wonderfully while others failed to perform at all. It seemed that these skills were made known to us through some ancient annals that had been collected over the centuries."

I guessed and if I am not mistaken, these skills that had been passed down through generations might come from a single source — The New Vagabond Army that was led by Robin the Hood some 300 years ago...!

"What else do you learn, Eagle, besides these skills?" I inquired and this time I was equally piqued and hoped to dig more information from him as we walked towards the end of the Macleod Coliseum, with the cloak in my hands that I had worn earlier.

"Oh... We learnt a few more skills such as rallying, protection and healing shouts as well. There are stances, attacks and also hex and spells too but we never get to try them out unless we are involved in live battles."

"During our training sparring sessions, we won't be able to deploy these skills effectively. Other then that, we only used a few of those that would be of our advantage, even if we used non-lethal weapons during our sessions."

"Why do you ask, Your Majesty? Or maybe you want us to call you the Black Mantis from now on? Hahaha..." Eagle poked fun at me as I laughed along with him.

"No... Leave the alias just for the ring. Come and see me later in the evening, I will show you something that would also be of interest to you too."

"In fact, it's concurrent to what you guys had been practising and I would like to confirm with you, after all."

Eagle nodded his head and excused himself and heads towards the windmill area where he removed his half-mask halfway before reaching the intended area.

As for me, I shrouded myself with the cloak and I removed the helm and adjusted my hair back. Then I made my way back to the boxed seating area with some goodies that I had bought from the food wagons as the Priests manning them gave me their thumbs up.

I laughed at them as I placed my forefinger at my lips to keep it as a secret as I walked over to the boxed seating area where Heather and the twins were watching the wrestling match.

=*=

"Aaww... Dear... You really missed the match of the day...! Is your stomach feeling better now? You really need to deposit those unwanted waste from your body every early morning dear. Or else it would be upsetting you the rest of the days...!"

Heather grabbed the set of food that I was carrying and I sat in between the twins as I held the buttered popped corn and they pinched their fingers to get to the contents inside the linen bags.

"How much did I miss?" I sat there as I slurped on a mug of small table ale while having a bite at the chilli con Carne that was served on a mini-baguette.

I was feeling exhausted at rest when I had been filled with adrenaline a few moments ago through the bout that I had been involved in earlier.

"Black Mantis was fighting against 4 opponents. He broke one guy's arms, knocked the other cold and senseless and the other simply threw in the towel when he was knocked out of his breath. It seemed the last fella had a fair fight with Black Mantis."

Heather was narrating to me the whole fight scene and I watched her with amazement. The twins were also stuffing their mouths with pieces of popped corn and were nodding their heads in agreement at what their Mummy had said.

It was as if they understood every single word their Mummy had narrated excitedly...!

"Ahem... Would you like to continue watching the Royal Rumble or would you prefer to come to the realm with me after this?"

"We can leave the twins to the domain helpers and before they we can go and get somethings from the grocery store and get some of the kitchen helpers to prepare our dinner."

"We would have a guest tonight and there are 4 medals that we would be reproducing back in the realm."

Hearing of entering the realm made her excited as she cleaned her dress that had some of the honey glazed popped corn that got stuck to it when she got all excited and watching the Black Mantis performing some acrobatics in the ring earlier.

Maybe she was cheering and flinging the food all over the place. I wondered how she would react if she happens to know that the Black Mantis was actually me. Hahaha...!

=*=

The twins were being minded by the domain helpers as we bought a large fowl and requested it to be roasted as a whole bird. We would also have some baked potatoes and carrots at the sides along with roasted buttered sweet corns too.

There would be some whole wild mushrooms and some steamed cauliflowers and broccoli too. It's a little feast since Heather would be handling the finances to distribute the remunerations to all the workers in town.

As for those on welfare support, the remunerations would be settled after the citizens had made their monthly voluntary contributions into the Community Chest.

It seemed that there are quite a number of families in social financial support as their husbands were still waiting for treatment and the womenfolk had to settle taking care of their husbands and children.

This would mean the womenfolk, would only be ready for work deployment once their husband had recuperated. Other than that, the family would be on the social financial support of 2 silvers per capita on the household.

Although they felt reluctant in receiving such support from the test of the community through this kind of means, they also felt that they were not forgotten and set aside like a rag, just like what they had been treated by the King's Army once their husbands were wounded in action and rendered as useless.

They vowed to dedicate themselves to work in the factories or the fields once their husbands had recovered from their war injuries.

=*=

"Are you ready to jump right into the realm my dear? We have more than an hour here in the real world and that equals to three hours in the realm. There would be so much for us to do there...!"

I beckoned for Heather to come close to me as she held my hands tightly and was filled with anticipation and excitement.

"Let's go, honey. I can't wait to make a trip there...!" Heather squealed with delight as she held my hands close to her as she leaned against me.

Before us was a small hand cart that we intend to push around in the realm since the medals would be of considerable weight once it had been reproduced.

Heather held the handle of the handcart as we sat down cross-legged and meditated before we entered through the vortex in our subconscious meditative state of mind.

When we both opened up our eyes, we had arrived at the White Room and this time, there were two machines attached to some weird devices and were set up on a study desk individually with a revolving plush high backed seat with wheels underneath.

There was a large writing slate behind the two machines and instead of being dark green in colour, it was pearly white and was made of a kind of material that could be rolled up when not in use.

At this moment, the material was rolled down and a huge weird-looking device with red, green and blue lights was hung on the ceiling. The lighting inside the White Room was fully lit up and as we had emerged into the White Room, the familiar voice sounded and greeted us.

"Welcome back to the realm. These two personal computers had been fully set up and configured to perform to the simplest of operations."

"In the future, new technologies had replaced books, paper and ink and therefore this projector and the screen behind the computers would be able to guide you on how to use them efficiently."

"A colour printer had already been hooked up at the side so you can print whatever you need."

Ceres voice reverberated throughout the White Room as we sat down on the plush high backed revolving chairs and found out how comfortable it seemed. It was of made of high-quality materials and the high backed seats had arms rests as well that was made of the same material as the seats.

After we got all comfy in our new seats, Heather was literally swinging her hips sideways and this made the chair revolve around several rotations and she seemed to be in need of some help to stop it from moving around some more...!

"Dear...! Help me...! I'm going dizzy and I'm going to throw up...!" Heather screamed at me and even though it may look fun at first, she was literally panicking when the seat slowly rotated around on its pivotal point before coming to a full stop.

We had a great laugh as Heather managed to regain her composure. It was a weird kind seat but at the same time, it looked rather fanciful. If only she could bring it back to the real world...! Seems everything that she finds interesting and useful would be brought back if possible...!

Typical hoarder... Hahaha...!

"Since you both are feeling comfortable in your seats, we shall begin the tutorial of the two personal computers before you, shall we?"

"At least through this visual tutorials, both of you would be able to grasp the present technology they would not be available at all in your time."

"Don't think about bringing them back, Heather. Electricity wasn't even invented until the 19th century by Michael Faraday...!"

Ceres advised the last part to Heather and I laughed at her. "This must be the setting of a classroom to come in the future I guess. No books, no papers and no ink. Only these machines that are right before us that would be used as a teaching tool and also to do all kind of printing."

"Actually, not just printing but presently let's stay that way then," Ceres spoke up and we simply nodded their heads as we sat together and watched the White Room slowly turned dim and the object above the ceiling light up.

"You will learn the names of the items before you and follow the instructions step by step, alright?" Ceres advised as the screen came alive as it showed a set of a machine sitting on a study desk, powered down as it is, for now.