The Man in the Black Robe

Day 18th Second month of Winter, 599th Year. New Age Calendar.

Anta Estate, City of Anta, Anta Duchy.

I think this is a great place to start the story. Let me just give you a brief introduction of my state at that time before diving into the story.

I was eighteen years old. Graduated from the Royal Academy of Mages and Knights of Daksh Kingdom. I was a Sixth Circle Mage with specialization in Spirit Summoning, Spirit fusion and Beast Taming. I was considered decent among the talents of the Kingdom.

I got offers from various Mage Orders, Duchies, Military and even Royal Family. An eighteen year old Sixth Circle Mage was kind of a big deal. To give you context, the King of Daksh was the only Tenth Circle Magic Knight in the kingdom and there are about a dozen known Ninth Circle Mages and Knights all over the Kingdom combined.

And their ages are numbered in hundreds. 

Even those powerful figures were nowhere near sixth circle at the age of eighteen. I was a product on high demand.

But I rejected all of them and joined one of the largest organizations of the planet. Mage Association. It was an independent organization and focuses solely on Mages, magic and research. It spanned across various kingdoms and in the Kingdom of Daksh its influence was second only to the Royal family.

However, I didn't join in Magic research department or even combat department of the Mage Association.

Instead, I joined the Mage Gazette.

A department under the Mage Association and the only publication that was similar to a modern day newspaper. Its job is to publish news that's happening all across the planet. The news covers from wars, politics, magic research, explorations, adventures, weird phenomenon, or any significant events.

As soon as I gave my opinion to join the Gazette, a lot of high powered people were disappointed. 

They claimed that I was wasting my talent, however, I was adamant about it. The gazette gives me the opportunity to see the stories across the world first hand and deliver it to the common populace.

And my first posting was in Anta City's Magic tower, which made me a bit disappointed.

Anta is the southernmost Duchy in the kingdom and it was also called the Edge of the World. It was a peninsular Duchy and the city is the southernmost point of the whole planet. Beyond it was the Endless sea and no one knows what's out there.

For centuries the Anta Duchy has been uneventful.

Except for being rich in resources related to water elements and sea creatures, the place was peaceful. There was no war and not many successful explorations. Except for occasional sea storms that hit the shore and drop in some rare sea creatures, there was nothing much going on.

On Day 15th, the Second Month of Winter, the 599th Year of the New Age Calendar, I joined as the Gazette reported in this beautiful city. Even though it was winter, it was relatively warm. Compared to the capital up north, this was practically a tropical paradise. 

Just when I thought, I would be bored to death, the night arrived a massive storm hit and a shipwreck happened for the first time in years.

I went to the shore and prepared my first article. It would have been pushed back to the back end of the gazette and it almost felt like a waste to make use of my camera on it.

After all, developing pictures wasn't cheap for me.

But in that shipwreck, I discovered a weird scale. A scale that looked reptilian, red in color, and blood-red patterns that looked like a huge dragon's maw. It felt familiar and I looked up some of my ancient books.

I found some info. The scale belongs to the Draconic Shark.

An old creature that was supposed to have gone extinct before the dawn of the New Age. Almost six hundred years ago. In these six hundred years, not a single one saw a Draconic Shark. And the best part was that the presence of Draconic Shark indicates a possible presence of something demonic under the sea.

The word demonic however was almost taboo in the new age. Because the Demons are precisely the reason why the Old Age ended. The ancestor of the current King of Daksh, the Magic Knight, led a team of another Nine powerful beings to fight a great war against the demons and sealed them away in another dimension, bringing peace and salvation to the world.

So, any possible presence of Demons and Demonic things was huge news which made me feel anxious and delighted at the same time.

I immediately ran to the Head of the Magic Tower to see if the Mage Association would sponsor an exploration. The head contacted the headquarters.

Orders came saying that we could not publish the premature information, for all we knew the scale could be of a different creature, for which I agreed. So, to confirm it, the Magic Tower launched a joint operation with the ruler of the land, the Anta Duchy.

The Duke of Anta was an Eighth Circle Knight, with his son being a twenty-three-year-old Sixth Circle Knight.

From the records, Draconic Shark was most likely a sixth-circle magic beast.

So, Duke Anta's son, Noah led a team of ten fifth circle Knights from the Duchy and five mages from the Magic Tower to explore the sea. I was also part of the team as the reporter. Of course, I had unique tracking abilities and I was given a chance.

Long story short, after one and half days of exploration, we not only managed to track the Draconic Shark, but we even captured it alive. So, on Day 17th, the Second Month of the Winter, the 599th year of the New Age, under the leadership of the Golden Knight Noah, an exploration team captured the Draconic Shark, an extinct sea beast, and brought it back to the Anta Duchy.

The whole city cheered.

On Day 18th, the news was published on the front page of the Gazette and I was the writer of the article.

'THE GOLDEN KNIGHT CAPTURED THE DRACONIC SHARK'

A set of stellar images were published along with the article. The images of the Knight fighting the shark from the sea. How the mages cast a magical artifact net that captured the shark, how they fit it in the special vessel, and how it was paraded through the whole city while it was brought to the Duke's Estate.

I was proud and delighted. But more than that, I was afraid.

Draconic Shark's presence was confirmed and there was a ninety percent chance that there was a demonic presence within the seas.

The Duke announced a seven-day banquet starting from the Day 18th as several mages, researchers, and knights from all across the planet were invited to come and witness the Draconic Shark.

I, as one of the key figures involved in the discovery, exploration, and tracking of the beast was invited as the special guest.

And around one hour after the sunset on the Day 18th, I was standing at the gates of the Duke's estate.

I was a bit nervous. Some really powerful figures, of the Anta Duchy were already there.

I wore my Ceremonial mage robes that were black with silver patterns. A symbol of quill and scroll were engraved on its back indicating my position as a Gazette reporter. I had short silver hair, I never liked long hair for some reason.

I took a deep breath as I was about to walk in.

*SWOOSH*

At that moment a young boy around eleven or twelve years old came running. He had blonde hair and wore luxurious clothes, however, his hands and mouth were covered with some red-colored frosting and cake crumbs.

He ran towards me and held my robes while he hid beside me.

"STOP THERE, YOU THIEF. THIS LITTLE LADY WILL PUNISH YOU TODAY."

I heard a sweet and innocent girl's voice before I spotted a girl about eight years of age, with the same golden blonde hair, dressed in the most beautiful gown I have ever seen clumsily running towards me, or more precisely the young boy that hid behind me.

She tried to reach around and grab the boy. But he slipped to the side and said.

"Mia, how many times do I have to tell you? I didn't eat your cake."

"Liar. Liar. It's all over your mouth. You definitely ate it."

She tried to grab him and instead grabbed my robe. 

The boy immediately rubbed his mouth and hands against my robe and said.

"See, I don't have it on my mouth. I didn't eat your cake. *PRRR*"

Not only did he say that with a cheeky smile, he even blew a raspberry to her face, before pushing me to block her and running away.

"Hey, kid…"

I looked at the little girl who started running after him and almost tripped. I caught her by her arms.

"Hello, little lady. You need to be careful."

I crouched and made sure that she wasn't hurt. She had big blue eyes and puffy red cheeks. She looked very cute.

"Mia…"

At this moment, a familiar person came calling her name.

A young man wearing a golden robe. 

"Tej, you are finally here." He greeted me with a smile and then spotted his sister too.

"I see you met my sister too."

It was Noah, the young master of the Anta Duchy and the hero of the day. Mia was his little sister and the other kid was his little brother.

"Noah, Mason stole my cake. He stole it. and.. and… he made faces at me. *sniff*"

She immediately ran into Noah's arms and started sobbing.

"Alright, I will spank him later. Alright, now we are celebrating. If our family's little day cries like that, how can the Anta Duchy celebrate? So, promise me that you won't cry and I will give you the biggest cake in whole Duchy."

He consoled his kid sister and she nodded while wiping her non-existent tears. Then she turned to me and asked.

"Noah, who is this silver head?"

I chuckled and took something out from my storage ring.

"I am Tej, a friend of your big brother Noah. Nice to meet you, little lady. And here is a gift for you."

I gave her a slightly glowing pearl. 

"Woah… Noah this ball has stars in it."

She spread both of her arms and held the pearl tightly while looking at it in awe.

"Thank Sir Tej."

"Thank you Silver Head." She thanked me with a cute smile.

"Oy, what is it?"

Mason, Noah's younger brother hurriedly ran over and looked at the glowing pearl curiously.

"Hmph, I won't show it you…"

She ran away and he followed hurriedly

Both Noah and I laughed.

As we chatted, I still couldn't help but glance at the two kids who were running around all over the place.

"They are very lively. You must be having a handful with them both."

"Tell me about it. Mason cannot help himself from teasing her. And she throws a tantrum every time he does it. But it would be a bit too boring if they weren't like that. They add color to this otherwise boring estate."

As we spoke and looked at the two little kids Mia who was running away from Mason, crashed into someone that just arrived. 

It was a man wearing black colored robes and he is accompanied by a Black Horse and a Black colored Dog that walked right beside him. His face is covered with a hood. He held a cigar between his left thumb and index fingers as he looked at the little girl.

She looked at him and froze. This made me frown. There was this odd feeling about him. A dark unsettling aura. Even Noah noticed this. And to add it to that, the Black horse. It has blood-red colored eyes.

Its majesty is only outshined by its menacing aura. Something that doesn't usually come from the horses.

The little girl looked at the man and broke out with a smile.

"Sorry silverhead. I didn't see you."

She spoke in a forced tone. She might have been truly afraid of the man. And then she looked at the dog that was almost as big as her. Her fear seemed to have gone and she extended her hand to look at the deep blue eyes of the dog.

It patted the dog, I had half the mind to stop her from doing it.

But when she patted, the dog obediently let her do it.

"Who is that?"

I asked Noah who was also looking at the scene.

"I don't know, let's take a look."

Both of us slowly walked towards them. At the same time, the Dog sniffed the little girl for a moment and then looked at the man, before nodding.

Yes, Nodding. It didn't feel like a normal shake of the head.

The man looked at the girl intently. Even though I couldn't see his face or eyes, I felt like he was looking at her.

Noah and I reached him.

"Sir, may I know the name of your esteemed self?" Noah asked.

The man looked at us as he put his cigar in his mouth. The cigar was also black. And the red burning light contrasted very much. I finally saw his face, he had short silver hair similar to mine, and his face was pale.

However, half of his face was covered in scars. Or rather healed bite marks. It felt like many small bites were chewed off his face and it was healed. I clearly understood why Mia was frozen, even I felt creeps when I saw it.

He took a huge hit of his cigar.

"No, you may not." He replied and tapped the ash off his cigar on top of Mia's head.

"Hey…" Noah frowned and was about to yell, but the next moment….

*BOOM*

With an explosive sound, black flames enveloped Mia as the ash touched her blonde hair.

"ARRGGGHHH...…."

She screamed in pain, but the screams only lasted less than an instant, because the next moment…

*BAM*

The man in black raised his leg and kicked her on the chin launching her through the entrance of the building and into the hall where the banquet was happening.

The kick was so strong, the aftershock, sent me and Noah flying. We hit through several guests and landed a few meters away.