Now that the group had gotten far within the area of Chishi, it would seem like it had led them to a tavern. This place had people looking at them and they were wondering what they were doing there. The bartender would come back and this time he wasn’t alone. He had come with a strong old-looking geezer as the tavern would nod to him. It would seem like they respected him, which was a good thing.

“So, who is looking for me? It must be really important if you called me out by name. A question you two, who are you and what do you want from the people of Chishi?” He asked him waiting for an answer from them.

Renji would shake his head as he felt like this was going to bite them in the ass. He wanted to whisper it, but it would seem like he was pressuring Yuurei to say his name out loud.

Yuurei would get up from his seat and he would greet the man without a problem. He would look at everyone and then he would look at Yamamoto with a serious look on his face.

“My name is Yuurei Starlight, and that should tell you why I’m here. I heard you might have some information I’m seeking.” He said this to him.

Yamamoto was surprised to hear that surname after so long, but he was surprised that this kid said it without hesitation. He wondered if he was stupid, crazy, or so strong that he couldn’t be stopped. In the end, he figured he would take him to the back and tell him whatever he wanted to know.

“Follow me. I will speak to you in the back. Everyone continued on and enjoy your time here. Two rounds on the house.” He said and with that, they would all cheer.

He would walk to the back of the tavern, and he would sit on his couch. Yuurei and Renji would look at him and they would just stand as they were looking at him. Yamamoto stared at Yuurei as he was trying to figure out if this kid was truly from the same family. Well, he must have been if he was asking around about them. He waited for the two short men to enter the room, so he could start asking them questions.

“This better not be a trap, or you going to see a form from Yuurei, that you don’t want to see.” He warned Yamamoto.

The man would chuckle as he didn’t have any plans for them like that.

431

Brone Heavyaxe finished his drink and left the mug on the counter, but before he could order another, an older, yet strong, gentleman had arrived answering to the name 'Yamamoto'. Yuurei used his last name as if it was a badge of honor which survived the dwarf since he never seen the guild master use such a title; for a while the dwarf didn't even remember what his last name was.

To their fortunate, Yamamoto seem to have agreed to request to speak, so he led them to the back of the taproom and they followed. The patrons seem to have relaxed a bit, either because they were provided an extra round of drinks or Yamamoto vouched for them, either way, it was to their benefit.

As they entered the back room, it was obvious the place looked different to the rest of the tavern, probably a safe room in some way. The cautious statement from Renji had worried the gnome, for Gnicholas didn't want to end up in the middle of a fight that would probably draw in the rest of the patrons; Brone cared not, for he had his weapons at the ready for any fight that would break out; as for Benimaru, he was itching for a fight so that he would be given a chance to to feel the power of the dwarf.

"Pleasure to meet ye, Yamaoto" Brone greeted as he took a seat on one of the wooden chairs facing the couch, "The name's Brone Heavyaxe" the confidence the dwarf had would only hold weight if Joya had heard of Paradise Dawn, not just it's guild leader, but the dwarf went along with it either way. Gnicholas decided to remain quiet as he remained standing and Benimaru just floated nearby like a ghost.

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Yamamoto would wait for them to be ready and situate themselves. He figured that Yuurei would have a lot of questions, so he figured he would let him talk first.

“What is it that you want to know about your family?” He asked Yuurei waiting for him to give him questions.

Yuurei nodded as it would seem like the man believed him and that was a good thing. Still, he wondered why they had to go to the back to speak like this.

“Who were my family to Joya? What did they actually do? Why aren’t there any of them left? Why do people act like my family did something scary to Joya? Why do you believe that I’m a Starlight?” He asked Yamamoto.

Yamamoto would nod when he heard those questions as he expected him to ask all of them. He was fine with this and he would just lean forward as he would look at the group in front of him. Renji noticed that this man was getting serious, which meant that things were about to get interesting.

“So, let’s start with the first question. Your family was a clan of blacksmiths who were known far and wide throughout the world. The Starlight’s were gifted by some god to be able to forge weapons that were able to take on otherworldly beings. What was scarier was that the Starlight’s who also became warriors and used the weapons they made had gained incredible powers beyond those of the norms.” He paused for a second.

“In the past, Joya was filled with Onis, that terrorized our home. This is why the Starlight family was so important to us. As you can see we have bones lying around here from the past so that we remember that the legends of the past remained true.” He said to Yuurei.

Yuurei heard his words, and it would seem like he wasn’t done. It would seem like they were going to be learning everything that this man knew about his family.

“The reason why you are the only Starlight left is simple. They were wiped out, but to get into more details, they were seen as not needed anymore. The Shogun felt that if the Starlight clan wanted to, they could start a revolt. And with their power, they would have been able to do it. The Shogun decided that it was best to wipe out the clan before that could even happen. That is why when you mentioned that you are a Starlight, you put a danger sign around you.” He said to Yuurei.

Yuurei had heard those words loud and clear. It made sense why people kept looking at him weirdly when he said his name. He understood now, which meant they were probably in danger. It wouldn’t matter though, not for these two at least. He was pretty sure that they could take on the majority of the mages in this world at the moment.

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Brone leaned forward in his seat as he listened to the story of the Starlight family. It was indeed exciting to hear the Starlights were prideful and powerful people who were the beacon of hope against the enemies of Joya, however it was a tragic end hearing of the clan's downfall at the hands of the Shogun. The atmosphere darkened as the truth came to all their ears.

Benimaru was facing Yamamoto, but as the elder spoke of the oni that swarmed Joya, the mask on the shield turned to face Yuurei, though Brone had not noticed this given that he was too into Yamamoto's story. As for Gnicholas, he noticed this but avoided eye contact with the eyes of the mask. He previously theorized the shield and sword were possessed by a ghost of some kind, maybe of a warrior that had long passed, but with this sudden reaction, he now wondered if Benimaru is actually an oni possessing the shield and sword, but he dared not bring it up, especially at this point in time.

"Don't fret, for Yuurei and I are able to bat away an entire army on our own" Brone smiled as he leaned back in his chair, trying to bring light back to the room.

* * *

"Well I'm not surprised" Huginn said as he and Muninn were flying in the air, watching a dark figure running towards the tavern at great speed. The figure made sure to avoid direct light in order to stay hidden as best as possible.

"I'll warn Brone" Muninn said as he flew down towards the tavern, but flying about the building structure, the dwarf wasn't seen through any of the windows, so the raven took a risk and flew in through one of the windows into the taproom. He then perched himself onto one of the wooden rafters on the ceiling. He quickly looked around the taproom, but couldn't find the dwarf; because the dark figure was moving so quickly, he worried he might soon be too late, so he cawed, drawing everyone's attention to him.

Brone heard the caw and moved to the door of the backroom. He cracked it open to see Muninn near the ceiling. When the raven spotted the dwarf, he flew down and landed on his arm and quickly spoke into his ear. The dwarf nodded and let the raven fly off through the window to meet Huginn.

The dwarf walked over to his seat, turned it to face the door and sat back into it as he eyed the only way into the room. Unfortunately because of the contract he has with the ravens, he cannot speak about ninja that was making it's way to the tavern. More than likely, it was here to get information on Yuurei, or kill him. Either way, Brone was ready.

Benimaru, reading the dwarf's expression, figured something was going to go down, so he floated closed to him. As for the gnome, he was too clever to be out of the loop, so he simply scurried underneath the couch.

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Yamamoto wasn’t done telling the story of what he wanted to say to them. He figured he would wrap this up and then have them leave soon after. He didn’t want his tavern to be destroyed for housing a Starlight.

“The people of Joya don’t fear the Starlight family. They just fear that being around you will cause them to possibly be harmed by the people who worked for the Shogun. They actually are happy that someone from the Starlight family is alive. Your family has done a lot for the people in Chishi and even for the people throughout Joya. Once they know that a Starlight is still alive, things will start to change.” He said to Yuurei with a smile on his face.

“I only believe that you’re a Starlight, is because of your red eye, your hair, and the fact that anybody who knew about the Starlight’s history wouldn’t bluntly say that they were one. You are saying you’re a Starlight depicts where you come from. I hope that you expand your family and that your father or mother teaches you how to better yourself as a blacksmith.” He said to Yuurei.

“Now, that I told you everything you need to know, I think it’s time for you and your friends to be on their way. If you stay in one place for too long, then things might be bad for us. You kept going around saying you were a Starlight is bad.” He said to Yuurei.

Yuurei would hear this and he would smile at him. He was already standing, but he would bow down to Yamamoto ass he had been useful and a lot of help.

“Thank you, for the information. I will make sure that I will do what I can to better the situation within Joya. You just give me time.” He said to Yamamoto as he would look at his friends.

“Let’s be on our way, we got some things to do in Joya.” He said to them as he would leave the room.

Renji would look at everyone and then at Yamamoto.

“This is nuts. First, Yuurei finds out he’s a royal of the Elves, and now his family is a legendary Blacksmith that has been targeted by the Shogun. This is going to be interesting, but it seems like he can’t stop getting into fights.” He said out loud.

He would walk out of the room and back to the tavern. The duo would see that everybody was looking at them and would have a smile on their face. They would lift their drinks to Yuurei as they were happy that a Starlight was still alive. The Seraphim would nod to them, and he was glad that they were appreciated by his family.

They would all drink to the man and they would all hope for a better future. When everybody was ready to leave, he would make his way to the doors. He would leave the tavern because he didn’t want to get anybody hurt.

“Alright, let’s go to the main city and have some fun. We learned about my history, so what we could do now is figure out what to do with the Shogun. Hopefully, we can find a solution.” He said to everybody.

Renji would shrug his shoulder and he knew that they would find a way. The group wouldn’t know where the ninja was hiding, but he was waiting for his moment to strike.

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[exit]

Brone continued to watch the door in silence as Yamamoto continued with his explanation of the Starlight family. Gnicholas poked his head out from beneath the couch and watched the door as well. Once he noticed nothing was happening, he would pull out a notepad and small pen and began to scribble down the information Yamamoto was providing; this was good information and he couldn't let this go unwritten.

Benimaru hovered by the dwarf ever so ominously, a purple flame would appear adjacent to the sword's sheath, representing the thrill he was feeling. The tassels that loo to resemble hands had moved to Brone's shoulders and began to caress the golden shoulder pads, as if he was massaging them. Brone would normally pull away from Benimaru because the shield-sword gets creepy at times, but the dwarf was hyper fixated on the door.

Eventually the discussion came to an end and Yuurei had said his goodbyes. Brone got to his feet and Gnicholas jumped onto the dwarf's shoulder, wanting to get out of the area as quickly as possible. "Thank ye, Yamamoto for the time" Brone gave a nod and smile to the elder before turning to the door again. Benimaru followed the dwarf and the half-elf out of the doorway of the backroom to see the patrons of the taproom raising their drinks in respect to them. Brone couldn't help but raise his fist into the air causing the patrons to cheer in excitement.

Once out in the open, outside the door to the bar, Brone looked up to the sky to see Huginn and Muninn circling above him. Normally they would fly down and perch themselves onto his shoulders, but because they tend to keep away from fights, especially in the air, this gave him a feeling that the ninja Muninn had said mentioned earlier was still a concern, the only problem was no one knew where the ninja was; the ravens didn't gesture to any specific direction. So the dwarf continued to keep his eyes open and his senses aware. Gnicholas, knowing how the ravens were, knew there might be trouble nearby even though he wasn't able to understand them.

"Is there an enemy nearby?" Gnicholas whispered into Brone's ear, but the dwarf didn't reply, simply ignoring the gnome to which he didn't take personally, he understood there was a reason why he never spoke of the ravens in any manner. The gnome has seen the ravens speak into the dwarf's ear at times, so they must communicate and whenever Gnicholas asked of them, the dwarf would just ignore him.

"Where is it?" Huginn asked as he scanned the area.

"Don't know, I went to warn Brone" Muninn replied as he too was scanning the area below.

"I lost it instantly, but the ninja should be nearby somewhere" Huginn said as the two ravens followed Brone, Yuurei and the others by air. They didn't know where the ninja was hiding, but they were not stupid enough to get close to the ground, worried they would get caught in the crossfire; they have seen Brone and Yuurei fight and it usually leads to destruction, including the terrain itself.

"So we're going to find the shogun and punch him in the face then?" Brone said as he petted Geri the moment the tempest wolf walked up beside him. Seems simple, but the dwarf understood that such a task would be very difficult, but whatever the task, it couldn't be more difficult than fighting dragons, such as the ones Paradise Dawn had faced. Such achievements would always remind Brone that they were capable of great feats.

They all continued towards the main city. They had no plan as to what they were going to do, but that never worries them or stops them... save for Gnicholas, who thinks they are completely idiotic for making moves without plans while they are being possibly tailed by an enemy of sort. He began to regret deciding on joining the group, for this would be a death sentence for the gnome, but what could he do now but hide?

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[Exit]