Duke Tao Vs The Masked Man (II)

Soon Duke Tao told the masked man about where the wine was inside his house. The masked man went downstairs and took out five wine barrels from one of Duke Tao's rooms. The red eagle was sitting on the open window, looking after Duke Tao.

One by one the masked man took all the wine barrels inside the room where Duke Tao was tied to the bed. And at last, he brought two small fruit knives from downstairs and put them on the window.

From the table, he took two wine glasses. Pouring wine into one glass he kept it beside Duke Tao's left hand which was not cut in half and another one he kept in his hand. After he untied his left hand, "Here, drink some wine then we'll talk." The masked man said.

"I have nothing to talk about, you can drink the wine alone." Without any emotion on his face, Duke Tao said.

"Don't worry, soon you will have a lot to talk about. First, finish the glass of wine I gave you."

Moving his hand, Duke Tao spilled the wine on the bed he was tied to. The masked man refiled the glass and said, "Just because it's your wine don't think you are free to spill it. I didn't do anything to your left hand so that you can use it to drink wine when I tell you to drink, not to spill the wine. If you do that again then I don't think there is any point in not cutting your left hand in half too."

"Don't think you will get away if anything happens to me." Duke Tao continued, "If you kill me nobles will not let you live, and if you do not kill me, I will not let you live. Either way, you are dead the moment you attack me." With his words, Duke Tao tried to scare the masked man.

"I'm not that stupid, don't worry I will not harm you. Also, if you drink all the glasses of wine, I give you, then I will heal your hand like it has never cut in half."

With some hesitation Duke Tao slowly lifted the wine glass with his hand, he first a small sip to check if it was really okay to drink. After knowing there was no poison in it he started to drink.

"See, it is not hard to drink right? Here, one more glass for you." The masked man refiled the wine glass. This time without any hesitation he drank it. From then on, the masked refused several more times till Duke Tao got stoned.

From the stars the masked man didn't drink a single glass of wine, he was only holding a glass filled with wine in his hand. "Did you enjoy drinking?" He asked.

"Y…yes" With his low drunk voice Duke Tao said.

"Now you don't see me as your enemy, right? We are old friends who enjoy drinking together." The masked man with a soft voice continued, "So, tell me friend for whom you are working these days? You know sitting around my house without any job, it would be great help if you tell me."

"To tell you the truth, I don't know about that person. I only get letters from him and do the work he asked for in the letter."

"Really!"

"Yes… But he told me if I do his work properly, then in future he will meet me." Duke Tao continued, "Also, he would grant me magical power that will make me stronger."

"So, currently you have no idea who you are working for. Well, then friend, you look exhausted, why don't you sleep now, we will talk tomorrow."

"You are right I should sleep now, we will-------" Slowly he stopped talking as he fell asleep.

"Little guy, heal his hand now." The masked man said to the red eagle. Following his words, the red eagle went to bed and started using magical powers. Green waves covered both parts of Duke Tao's right hand, and the half part of his hand which was next to him slowly rose above in the air. It started to get closer to the other part of his right hand which was connected to his shoulder.

Soon both paths of his hand came closer, within ten seconds both parts of his right hand joined together and became one. His right hand completely healed as if they were never slashed in the two parts.

After the red eagle healed Duke Tao's right hand, the masked man started to pour the wine over Duke Tao's body from the glass he was holding in his hand. After that, he spilled all the wine from barrels on the floor and bed around Duke Tao.

The masked man took out the ring from Duke Tao's finger from where Duke Tao summoned his flying sword. The masked man united Duke Tao and then walked to the window. He waited till the wine on the floor reached the window and spread all over the floor inside Duke Tao's house.

Before the wine touched the masked man's legs he sat on the window and started rubbing the knives to each other, soon sparks started to come out of it. Number of sparks started to increase as the masked man increased the rubbing knives speed, when he saw many sparks near the knives, he threw both of them on the floor.

As soon as both knives come into contact with the wine on the floor it quickly catches fire and starts to spread throughout the room. The masked man along with his red eagle jumped down from the window and without looking back at the burning room he went away from there.

In five minutes, the whole room where Duke Tao was sleeping was burning in fire. It didn't take the fire long to follow the path set by the wine and spread across the bed on which Duke Tao was sleeping. At first, Duke Tao felt some burning pain, but as he was too drunk, and his body contained fire-magical energy he didn't feel that much.

After ten minutes when a few people saw the house on fire, they started to shout. "Fire–Fire Duke Tao's house in one fire." Hearing them, many more people started to gather near the house. No one was present there who could use magical energy that could stop the fire.

As Duke Tao did not shout in pain or shout for help, no one thought that he was inside the house and so no one tried to save him.

"Let's get some water to stop the fire. If Duke Tao found out that we just watched his house burn, he would get angry at us."

Few of them were using the bucket filled with water to stop the fire from spreading.

 But the small amount of the water didn't affect the fire that much when it was burning due to the wine. It only helped stop the fire before it burned the whole house down.

After an hour they were able to stop the fire and went back to their houses. Duke Tao's men still hadn't returned to his house.

The next morning people were walking on the street while their eyes were on Duke Tao's house. Only the four walls and the ground floor weren't damaged by the fire that much.