Memoirs of A Second Life

The First Day

The very next day, at the break of dawn, many people gathered at the eastern gate of Freiheit, the capital city of Liberio. Many of these people were individuals who had been helped by Prince Marius, and it seemed that they all wanted to see him off.

Based on the look on their faces, they were proud of their prince, no matter how willful he could be. Among the ones who sent Marius off was Lancelot and one of Marius' brothers, the second child, Marcus. He presented a shield to his younger brother, which had the coat of arms of Freiheit. A majestic bird, which symbolized freedom, liberation, and courage: the Eagle.

I was surprised that King Zeldris didn't see his own son off, but even more surprised that Marius' own mother wasn't there. I was curious to know what kind of woman gave birth to someone as heroic, yet oddly arrogant, as Marius, but I was too shy to bring up the question.

Seemingly having read my mind, Beatrix led her horse closer towards mine, and said, "If you're wondering where the prince's mother is, the third empress consort, Lady Shaila isn't very fond of him. But then again, prince Marius shares the sentiment."

"Is there a reason for that?" I asked with great concern, taking advantage of Beatrix's candidness while Marius was waving at his adoring fans.

Beatrix leaned even closer to me and whispered, "She puts a lot of pressure on him. She wants him to be the king's successor, but he's too far down the line."

"I... don't know what to say to that. I'm sorry for probing too much," I said, dismissing the topic.

She averted her gaze from me when she noticed that Marius was finally ready to leave. And as we rode to the other side of the gate, Marius raised the shield his brother had given him, facing the ornamented side towards the crowd and sending them into an uproar of excitement.

"Your heroic prince rides away, good people of Freiheit! I shall return!" Marius shouted as we rode as fast as the horses could take us.

For hours on end, we rode through the plains outside the city and crossed the valley. The horses were well-trained, so much so that they were able to cross uneven terrain safely, and we barely stopped to rest despite how long we've been riding for. Our goal was to reach a city, three days away from Freiheit. It was Mactan, the capital city of the eastern region of Liberio, home to warrior tribes of Filipinas.

My father once told me about the Filipinos, and said that they were the originators of the Eskrima fighting form. Aside from that, many of the people were warriors, even women and children. But most of all, they were an honorable people, and they never forget to repay a debt.

Truthfully, I was excited to reach Mactan because I wanted to learn more about Eskrima and refine my fighting style. It would be great if we could stick around the city for a period of time, and learn more about their culture.

Soon, the sun was about to set. I could see the purple moon looming over the horizon already, and we still have yet to pass through the thicket of forest miles and miles away east of Freiheit. And as the sun went down, the sky slowly turned dark. I could hear some owls hooting and crickets chirping from a distance.

The forest was eerily silent, and only faint sounds of some animals could be heard. From time to time, I would hear the rustling leaves, as if someone or maybe something was following us.

Fortunately, I wasn't the only one who noticed it. I looked at Beatrix with a knowing glance, and she, too, realized that we were indeed being followed. Suddenly, Marius said, "Keep going. Don't let them notice that we're aware they're there."

I was surprised to know that Marius had been aware of our pursuers all this time, but he was just keeping up a ruse. It was only the first day of our adventure, and yet we're already on death's doorstep. But with Beatrix around, I doubt anyone could harm us that easily.

All of a sudden, an arrow whooshed past me, directly heading towards Marius. Beatrix was quick to react, and had taken out her broad rapier to deflect the arrow. The moment she made it known to our enemies that we were aware they were there, several men in hoods appeared from either side. They were running almost as fast as our horses could carry us.

It took me by surprise that there were humans capable of running at par with horses. However, I didn't let my astonishment faze me. I placed my right hand to my forehead and pictured a vivid imagery of lights in the form of swords. Moments later, I felt my mana surge across my body and flowed upwards, forming rays of light above my head.

"Espada Radiante!" I commanded. The rays of light aimed towards our enemies and managed to pierce two of them, one from each flank. There were still five right behind us, and four on both sides. I wanted to cast another spell, but then one of them knocked me off my horse by jumping towards me and pinning me to the ground.

While I was on the ground, I noticed that his eyes were pure black, and he held a knife on his right hand, ready to drive it down towards my neck. I heaved and panted, fearing that this was the end of my life.

It was at this moment that Marius' horse kicked the assailant away from me, effectively knocking the guy out. Marius dismounted his horse and whistled, commanding the steed to follow my horse along. Beatrix had also dismounted, and she was fending off the assassins by herself. All twelve of the remaining assassins had surrounded her, and yet it did not faze her.

With rapier in hand, she parried every blow, s***h, strike, and projectile being aimed towards her. Her swift movements were unmatched, and the assassins soon split up before any more of them could fall prey to her masterful swordsmanship.

Beatrix's wavy red hair fluttered along every time she lunged her rapier at an enemy. And as I watched her in astonishment, Marius pulled me up and told me, "Get a grip, Altair. Aren't you supposed to be my master? This is a normal occurrence. I have no idea who sent these louts, but assassins are always after me. Bah! I can't even catch a break."

While he was speaking, I drew my treasured dagger from behind me and threw it past Marius. There was an assassin ready to strike him down, but I wasn't going to let that happen. Afterwards, I sprang towards the assassin and drew my dagger from his face without hesitation. I didn't even stop to look at the damage it had left on him, fearing that it would make me throw up.

Marius and I joined the fray, and noticed that there were only eight of the assassins left. Beatrix hadn't even moved from where she was standing, rather, she probably deemed them unworthy of moving from her place. "My prince, would you like me to strike them down or would you rather experience gain more experience in battle?"

"Leave them to us!" Marius responded, glancing at me and nodding. So, we rushed towards our enemies and each took care of four of them. These men were skilled enough to outmatch an average soldier, but Marius and I had been trained to fight by the strongest of warriors. I still wasn't sure who he had learned from, but it had been made clear to me that Marius wasn't an amateur in the field of battle.

As much as it pained me to admit it, I, myself, had been trained by a mighty Liberian hero: my father, Azlan Van Astrea.

"Show me what you've got, Master!" Marius said while making short work of his first enemy.

Not to be outdone, I used my dagger to fend off an attack, and countered using the tonfa attached to my left armguard. I knew that it wouldn't be enough to defeat the man, so I plunged the dagger right to his heart before he could recover.

I repeated this same method until I had all but finished the fight on my end. Now, only one of them remained. I noticed that Marius had defeated all of his enemies, so I wanted to show him what his new instructor could do in terms of bladework.

This time, I drew Lionheart from its scabbard, and held it with both hands. I could tell that the assassin was now hesitating to fight me, considering that I had taken down many of his friends. Clearly, they had underestimated the three of us.

Right before I could attack him, the assassin tried to run away. However, Beatrix tripped him, and drove her rapier down to his throat while looking into his eyes. Her piercing gaze was even sharper than her sword, and her tongue even more so. "Have a nice trip to Hell."

Just when we thought that we had eliminated all of them, one of the assassins recovered from being knocked out. It was the one who got kicked away by Marius' steed. Beatrix hurled her rapier at him, but it only plunged into the tree beside the man.

Disappointed, she walked towards her rapier and drew it from the three. "Shall I pursue the straggler, your highness?"

Marius shook his head and said, "Nah. We should just tend to our horses. It'll get even darker soon. It's best that we look for them now before it gets too dark. Maybe even goblins or wolves might find our horses before we could, and I'm not going to let that happen."

He then turned to me and asked, "Listen, Altair, if you want to survive this trip, you're gonna have to get used to this. Something like that is an everyday occurrence to us. I'm sure one of my brothers' mothers sent those bastards after me."

"What? You're not from the same mother?" I asked. "You know what, that's not important right now. Why isn't the king doing anything about it?"

Marius shrugged. "I have no idea what my old man is thinking, but this might be one of the reasons he's sending me away; to keep me away from the grips of my stepmothers."

Beatrix handed Marius a calabash, which he then took and removed the cork. After taking a swig of the water, he continued, "Let's move. I don't want to stay in the same place for too long. Otherwise, they could send more of those assassins after us. We'll have more time to chat when we're safe."