Rebirth of the Phoenix God

Once the first ringing of the city bell announced the official beginning of the day, Fen's company instantly moved out of the small plaza in front of the inn. While they were ready to depart ever since an hour ago or so, attempting to leave their place before the predetermined plan could be taken as a diplomatic affront.

"This place surely is lively."

Compared to what the young arcanist saw back in any of the cities that were currently in the dominion of the new country, Iyuethei proved that despite lying far further to the west, it still had a life of its own. 

As the entire group slowly rode out of the plaza through the streets of the town, Fen was in awe of how hardworking the people of the town were. When his entourage was still preparing for the departure, he could already both see and hear the noises of people rustling about. Right now, those same people were already opening up their shops and adoring the nicely decorated procession of the mercenaries passing by their homes and workshops, taking a moment to detach themselves from their mundane reality.

"Sir, the main hall is right ahead."

With one of the mercenaries breaking the formation to inform the leader of the group, Fen only nodded to his words in response before looking straight forward. After moving from the inn, they only had to pass by several small crossing before reaching one of the main streets of the city, that all converged in the place they were heading towards.

"Welcome to Iyuethei!"

Before the group could even reach their destination, a party of three horsemen approached them. With their commander moving a few paces forward before speaking, Fen finally had someone to guide them towards the exact destination. After all, it would take some really naive king's servants to reveal the position of the monarch to a potentially highly dangerous group of hardened warriors in advance!

"Sir, you have my respect for being able to utter the name of this city so flawlessly."

Lowering his head with respect towards the man that spoke up, Fen rushed his horse a bit before stalling it right beside the guide.

"I'm the son of the city, sir. It would be unbecoming of me to not possess this valuable skill."

Responding in a jokingly manner, the man managed to somehow relieve the tension that was bound to appear when two potentially hostile forces would meet. 

"Either way, let's save the small talk for later. Our greatest and benevolent monarch awaits your arrival in the throne room of the City Hall. As for the people following you…"

Stopping his words while looking behind Fen's shoulder, the soldier in front of the young arcanist was clearly troubled by the matter he brought. 

"Don't worry. I will only take two of my officers with me. While I do not wish to make his majesty think that I'm worried for my safety or anything… I made the mistake of enjoying the local… delicacies so I'm would love to have someone who could make sure that I remember all the golden notes of the royal family if my memory were to fail."

Speaking up with a slightly embarrassed look on his face, Fen looked to the side. While his words could be said to be aimed at calming the soldier down - after all, how could one allow fifty hardened warriors directly in the presence of the most important person in the entire country? - his sentences actually had yet another meaning hidden beneath them.

'I wonder if they will figure out what I wanted to imply…'

Smiling in his mind, Fen could tell that the lack of his presence in the inn through the night wouldn't go unnoticed. With how that place was recommended by the local forces, it was bound to be strictly controlled by many hidden spies. That's why there was absolutely no way for the locals to miss the fact that he was away from the inn.

And what was the better excuse than almost openly admitting to a visit to a whorehouse? 

While this fact could also be checked to a certain degree, it would definitely take way longer. After all, knowing the situation from the other cities Fen visited in his life so far, brothels were not only aplenty in big towns, but they were also one of the hardest places to pull the information from!

"That will surely be appreciated. I don't want to be rude, but if I may ask your honour to…"

Seeing the uneasy expression on the face of the soldier, Fen couldn't help but smirk a bit. Turning his head to the back before even the middle-aged warrior could finish his sentence, the young arcanist scanned his group with his eyes.

"Otto, Farkel, you are with me. The rest of you, stand guard here."

Instead of moving forward on their horses, the two mercenaries called out by Fen quickly jumped down from their horses, quickly followed by the rest of the company. By the time the two of them reached the side of their commander, the rest of the entire unit was already on foot, with their horses shielding them from the sides.

"Such discipline... "

"Look at how heroically they look!"

"I'm glad we are not going to fight with people like them…"

The voices of the crowd that already managed to gather around the commotion were like honey for Fen's ears. This kind of formation wasn't something that he came on the spot, but something that his entire group practised over the course of their journey to this place. In order to make sure they would be taken seriously, a huge degree of discipline - unbecoming of the ordinary band of mercenaries - had to be displayed.

"I'm glad this part went without any trouble…"

Most likely not expecting the mercenaries to hear the words that he muttered as a huge sigh of relief left his lungs, the soldier followed the example of the guests and jumped down from his horse. With the two of his companions doing the same, the group of six people now marched the remaining distance completely on foot, allowing the crowd around them to adore the distinguishing uniforms that Fen and his companion wore.

From how the entire path towards the city hall was cleared out from any crowd, Fen could tell that the monarch either treated this meeting quite seriously or just planned to pull them into a trap before massacring every last soul of his company. This was also the reason why the two mercenaries accompanying him were actually the two most versatile and dangerous men from both Victors and Orsha's group before the two of them merged!

Thankfully, no ugly accident happened on their way towards the town's hall. With no crowd to bother them on the way, the short distance quickly shrunk to nothingness, finally allowing Fen and two of his mercenary brothers to enter the premise of the impressive building.

Walking past the walls of the city hall, Fen couldn't help but get the feeling that this place was somehow extremely familiar. As if he already visited it before…

But no matter how hard the young arcanist wanted to dig the roots of this feeling, the real reason for this strange feeling of deja-vu remained intangible, always just an inch outside of the reach of his imaginary hands. Before those attempts could turn Fen's frustration into desperation though, their journey through the vast corridor ended when the three of the mercenaries and three of the soldiers passed by the open doors and entered the throne room of the building.

"Welcome, honoured soldiers of peace. I'm glad you made it here without any unfortunate accidents."

Sitting right at the opposite end of the room compared to where the huge doors were, a strangely small man spoke with a voice that if not for Fen seeing him speak with his own eyes, he would never dare to attribute it to someone looking as if he just left the phase of adolescence. Not with how insanely deep and powerful it was.

'Was I wrong about him?'

Just like before, just hearing the king speak made Fen feel a strange sensation as if he heard his voice before. But it was just a moment later when he realised that while his eyes saw the monarch, his ears were already partaking in another of those bloodline visions of his.

"I'm sorry…"

Falling on one knee, Fen suddenly lowered his head, as if he wanted to bow to the king. In fact, he simply closed his eyes to make sure no reality would influence his visions. The few of those that he experienced so far already proved that there was rarely something more important than the knowledge that he could learn from those visions!

"We might've been at odds in the past…"

The powerful voice continued while the soft murmurs reached Fen's ears.

"At odds… what a nice way of naming the slaughter of all the other eleven phoenixian lords!"

"Those barbarians…"

Despite his eyes being closed, Fen could already see the familiar face of the lord that lead the entire expedition through the vast expanses of the ocean, sitting on the exact same spot as the young monarch of Kinzarian former Heptarchy sat in the real world. Just like his voice, the entire aura around that person oozed the respect and power, something that Fen never saw in any other person, Hekarion from Akhaz included.

"... May the Phoenix be praised, as today, in her name, we sit and feast together, to bury the hostility of the past and form a new friendship of the future!"

Finally capable of moving his sight away from the long-dead phoenixian lord, Fen managed to glance at the person that this legendary figure was speaking to.

And then, he felt as if his eyes were about to pop out of their sockets.

"Is he okay?"

Before the young arcanist could react in any way to the insanity that he just observed, a young and soft voice reached his ears. Opening his eyes, the young man raised his head only to notice that the monarch himself was looking at him with a strange look of curiosity on his face.

"I'm sorry, your grace."

Standing up from his lowered posture, Fen instantly threw all the emotions to the side before pointing with his finger at his head.

"Ever since I was hit with a hammer to my head… There are times when I have attacks like the one your majesty was just forced to see. My apologies for this unsightly event."

Lowering his head in apology, Fen quickly regained his wits and composure before raising his head once again.

"Your grace, if I may ask, did the news of the trouble in the east reached your benevolent ears?"