Chapter 1
The warm sunlight penetrated the glass openings of one of the castle's passages, casting its shadows on the sides of the curved supporting columns. The corridor, as a whole, appeared ordinary, without any peculiarities, until two candle-like flames ignited within the recesses of one of the many armors adorning the sides of the passage. These flames moved and "glanced" in all directions, as if examining their surroundings, their bluish-green hue creeping steadily.
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The previous hours were the strangest and most intimidating period of my life. No one puts on the list of things that might happen to him in his life waking up in a place that all that can be said about is a castle from the Middle Ages Even though I can't tell because of my eyesight, and worse than that, I can't move without feeling even a little bit with my limbs, I don't even feel my heartbeat!! It's my damn heart, how am I still alive!!!?
After the initial panic and attempts to calm myself by controlling my breathing, despite not feeling my lungs, I decided it was best to ignore my bodily problems; otherwise, I might never stop obsessing over them.
I glanced around my surroundings again, confirming that it was indeed a castle, though the colors were peculiar. A mix of yellows adorned the walls in various gradients to distinguish the patterns, while green hues emanated from the torches lining the walls in front of me.
"Either the creator of this castle has a peculiar artistic taste, or I've become color blind on top of being paralyzed," I thought.
Apart from the odd colors, the castle looked conventional, although I had never seen one before. The corridor was wide, at least four meters across, with a star pattern decorating the tiles. I couldn't tell if the same pattern extended along the entire corridor, but there was nothing distinctive about the tiles. The real peculiarity lay in the walls.
Running along the walls were rectangular pillars protruding from the ceiling as if part of the wall itself. They were spaced about three meters apart and featured simple decorations with rectangles etched on the sides. The torches were mounted on sconces that had two lit green candles each, and that only added to my anxiety, making me worry about color blindness as well.
Between each pair of pillars was a small, square platform, about a foot high, with a metal armor on top that looked like it came from a classic European medieval tale. All sides were cylindrical with cavities and the helmet was curved at the back like a bird's head without a beak. The only opening was a rectangular slit that divided the helmet into four smaller pillars.
The helmet resembled an ancient wood-burning stove from some mountainous home, ending with a standard straight sword. How could anyone wear such an outfit? I couldn't imagine.
As expected, the ceiling arched like a stretched dome, embellished with elaborate chandeliers and candles along its edges, with occasional windows allowing green-tinted sunlight to pierce through.
I hated color blindness.
As I counted everything under my gaze and found nothing to do, I started looking ahead faintly. When I focused on what was in front of me, my imaginary heartbeat intensified, then calmed.
It's impossible! It cannot
Me and my big imagination it is impossible for this to happen! In front of me parallel to a armor, that means my place should be armor.
So where I am, there must be a armor too, and since I'm here, it seems that I'm inside the armor, paralyzed.
There's no way it's anything else! ... Like all the impossible things that happened these hours
'Aghgh, shut up, pessimistic mind'
And while I started exchanging insults with myself because of boredom, I heard a voice other than my treacherous voice and turned my gaze towards him.
In the space that you can't see me reaching, the sound of metal footsteps and a conversation in a language I don't know, but I'm sure it's men's voices. And when they approached, I saw two men, or rather a smoke shape intertwined in a way that resembled strings or nerves, or anything similar. The problem of an antelope that looks like two legs with a green ball in the place of the heart. And so I made sure that the problem is in my eyes, not the artistic taste of the owner of the castle.
The two men were moving straight for the rest of the corridor with hasty steps and suddenly one of them turned to me randomly, I closed my eyes quickly and wished he hadn't seen me, but from their loudness and acceleration it seems that my wish will not come true anytime soon.
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One of the soldiers
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Another lousy day since my retirement approached. I think I'm cursed. As my retirement date neared, some of the Emirates started keeping an eye on the Lord. From what I've heard, there have been several assassination attempts on the Lord and his family already. I don't know if I should wish for those attempts to succeed or not, because if they don't, there's bound to be a large-scale war. From my perspective as a soldier, the Lord's death would make my job easier and reduce casualties. After all, it's a war between Emirates, not the Kingdom, but those are just thoughts that will never see the light of day.
"Ugh, this boy doesn't want to be silent. It's morning for hell... Youth and vitality. What was he talking about again? Something about earning military merit? ."
Looking away to distract myself from the young man's ambitions, I noticed an unexpected green glow from one of the armors. Blinking several times, the glow vanished just as quickly as I saw it. I turned my face back to the young man, trying not to be overly cautious about the armor.
"Khaled, what—"
"Go and call Clever, the chief of the servants."
I felt him staring at me for a moment before he headed off in any direction. Well, despite his excitement, he hadn't forgotten military ranks and orders. I hoped he'd survive long enough to retire.
As I resumed observing the armor, I couldn't see or find anything unusual. No runic symbols, energy fluctuations, vitality, or any other person or creature besides myself. Just like any other armor. But despite my age, I trust my eyes. I wouldn't have stayed in the military if I had such a severe weakness. So, let's wait for the boy to return with Clever for a more thorough examination.
...
After several minutes of silent observation, the sound of the boy's footsteps returned, along with a few others. I allowed myself to face them while still being cautious of the armor.
"Clever, you old dog, I'm still alive."
One freshness of his hair shows the receding of another line of hair. From his thick skull that compares to the thickness of the rest of his face
It reminds me of my need to retire before I become like him.
"Don't hurt me with your eyes again, the last time he talked about my life, I was going to lose my hand."
I move my hand to him with a gesture ignoring
" shut up as if it was going to happen you are like a cockroach"
His eye shines sarcastically before moving on to seriousness
"Forget it, it's not the time now, why did you call me?"
I pointed my thumb to the armor.
"The armor helmet shone green for a while and I didn't find any abnormalities that might be another assassination attempt."
"Are you sure your eye doesn't deceive you?" with every atom of ridicule from his lip before looking more closely at the armor
"As if"
After a few minutes of looking here and there at the armor, as if he was examining a piece of art, and I'm sure he used some of his skills.
"There's nothing I can see, but for protection, Bet
ty and Sophie took this armor off and lowered it for a more thorough examination."