Chapter 153
It ended up taking Rayne far longer than he expected to go through all the files Captain Edran had handed him. What he initially thought would take less than an hour somehow stretched into several as he sat behind his desk reading through page after page of records, evaluations, disciplinary reports, and recommendations.
Unfortunately, the deeper he got into them, the less enthusiastic he became.
Even the recruits he initially believed would fit well into his squad turned out to be little more than fresh blood straight out of training.
Most had joined the army chasing coin, glory, or the hope of one day becoming some governing clerk by connections, and judging by their evaluations, many of them would struggle to keep their composure against anything more dangerous than a goblin, depending on how mean it looked. Worse, they weren't even the best recruits from their training groups.
Most sat near the bottom of the rankings and had only been assigned to the warband because nobody else particularly wanted them.
The rest of the files weren't much better.
In fact, they were considerably worse. The majority of his squad consisted of forsaken transferred from other warbands and others who were recent criminals, and while some had committed relatively minor crimes, others carried records long enough to make Rayne wonder how they were still alive.
Assaults, insubordination, theft, drunken brawls, repeated disciplinary violations and enough hostility toward authority figures to give any squad leader a headache were scattered throughout the reports.
At one point Rayne actually wondered whether Captain Edran had deliberately assigned him the worst soldiers in the warband because he had somehow annoyed him without realizing it.
The thought didn't last long. After thinking about it more carefully, the answer became obvious.
It was common knowledge by now that the warband would be travelling toward the Godless Ruins, and everyone in the army understood what that meant.
Few officers would willingly send their most promising recruits or talented soldiers toward a place where there was a very real possibility they would simply die.
As a result, the warband heading toward the ruins were naturally receiving the leftovers.
Looking through the files, Rayne doubted his squad was unique in that regard. The other newly formed squads were probably receiving similar assignments.
At the very least, he wasn't entirely without options. The newly acquired [Commander's Aura] should make maintaining discipline significantly easier, and with some weeks remaining before they departed, there would be enough opportunities to put the recruits through training and expose them to actual combat.
Experience solved many problems in the army, and if he could keep the men alive long enough, some of them might even turn into decent soldiers by the time they reached the ruins.
By the time Rayne finally finished reading through the last file and pushed the stack away, most of the day had already disappeared.
News of his promotion had apparently spread through the longhouse as well, because the moment he stepped outside his room, Kesh, Nate, and Heins immediately dropped to one knee in an exaggerated display of respect while loudly greeting him as Squad Leader Rayne.
The performance was so ridiculous that even several nearby soldiers started laughing, and after spending months around them, Rayne had expected nothing less.
The teasing continued throughout the evening as the rest of the party learned about the promotion, and eventually all of them ended up heading toward a nearby tavern to celebrate both their victory over the Crimson Guard and his promotion.
Unfortunately, Bran didn't join them, probably still mulling over his class choices.
Despite that, the food flowed freely, the ale even more so, and before long the stories surrounding yesterday's battle had already begun growing larger with every retelling. Yet unlike most of the others, Rayne didn't remain there for the entire night.
Tomorrow he would finally meet Prince Caelan, and considering everything Captain Edran had told him, he wasn't interested in arriving tired, drunk, or unprepared.
Hence, Rayne didn't stay at the tavern for very long.
After sharing a few drinks with the others and enduring another round of jokes regarding his promotion, he eventually returned to the longhouse and went to sleep shortly before midnight.
The next morning, the first thing he did after waking up was get rid of his beard.
Using a small shaving cream Kesh had somehow acquired and a knife that was considerably sharper than any razor back on Earth, Rayne carefully scraped away several weeks worth of growth while staring into a small mirror. Once he was done, he spent a few more minutes fixing his hair. It had grown noticeably over the months since arriving in this world, long enough that the bangs occasionally fell into his eyes during training.
Meeting a prince with hair flying in every direction didn't seem like a particularly good idea.
After taking a bath, he tied most of it into a small ponytail and looked himself over again. The result wasn't perfect, but it was certainly better than before.
Unfortunately, there wasn't much he could do about his clothes.
Rayne didn't exactly own anything suitable for meeting royalty. In the end, he simply selected the cleanest set he had available. It wasn't noble attire, but at least it didn't smell like sweat or blood.
After strapping his sword to his hip out of habit and making sure everything looked presentable enough, he finally left the longhouse and headed toward the address Captain Edran had given him.
What surprised him before the meeting itself was where it was taking place.
The address led him toward the lower districts of Valers.
The first time a city guard pointed him in that direction, Rayne actually wondered if the man had misunderstood the address or was simply messing with him. Princes weren't exactly known for spending their time in poorer parts of the city.
Yet after asking two more people and receiving the same directions both times, he accepted that the address was apparently correct.
The further he walked, the more confused he became.
Eventually he reached the destination and found himself staring at a small inn squeezed between several aging buildings. The place looked quiet enough that it barely seemed to receive customers at all.
Standing outside for a moment, Rayne glanced at the slip of paper one final time before confirming the address.
Then, after taking a breath, he stepped inside and began following the directions written on it.
There was an old receptionist sitting behind a worn wooden counter on the ground floor.
The old man looked up as Rayne entered, giving him a brief glance before returning to the book resting in front of him as though another customer had just walked inside. Maybe he had already been told to expect him.
Either way, he didn't linger.
Since the slip Captain Edran had given him clearly stated the room number, Rayne didn't bother asking for directions and quietly climbed the narrow staircase leading to the second floor.
The hallway above looked no better than the rest of the building. The wooden floor creaked beneath every step while faint spider webs clung to the corners of the ceiling. It was difficult to imagine that someone from the royal family would choose a place like this for a meeting.
Even so, he continued toward the end of the corridor until he finally stopped before the last door.
Raising his hand, he knocked firmly.
“It's me, Rayne Frayser. I was told to meet Prince Caelan here.”
Silence followed his words. Nearly ten seconds passed before the door slowly opened, revealing an elderly man with a slight hunch in his back.
He stood roughly as tall as Rayne, though age had clearly bent his posture, and the expensive robes covering his body were enough to mark him as someone far wealthier than an ordinary citizen, if not a noble.
His sharp eyes studied Rayne for a long moment without saying a word, almost as though weighing him.
Before Rayne could say anything, another voice came from somewhere inside the room.
“Let him come in, Viscount.”
The old man immediately stepped aside.
Rayne entered without hesitation and finally got his first proper look at Prince Caelan. The prince sat comfortably at a modest wooden table, calmly slicing into a steak before taking another bite as though there wasn't anything unusual about holding a secret meeting inside an almost empty inn.
Two empty chairs rested opposite him, and without any ceremony, Caelan simply pointed toward one of them with the fork still in his hand.
“Take a seat. No need to bow or anything,” he said with an easy smile. “As you can probably tell by the building we're in, this is an unofficial meeting. Other than Captain Edran, nobody even knows about it.”
Rayne simply nodded before taking the offered seat while the Viscount quietly closed the door and settled into the chair beside him. For a brief moment, nobody spoke.
Caelan merely gestured toward the plate that had already been prepared for him.
“The steak has gone a little cold,” the prince said. “But it should still be edible.”
Understanding the hint, Rayne picked up the utensils and cut himself a small piece before taking a bite. Only after he had done so did Prince Caelan place his own fork down and fold his hands together.
“First of all,” the prince began, “I would like to apologize to you.”
Rayne raised an eyebrow, but Caelan continued before he could ask anything.
“It was me who convinced Captain Edran to withdraw you and your party from the tournament. I only did it because I know my dear older brother. After what happened in the arena, he would have made sure you were crushed in the very next round. Melakar always takes his revenge eventually, and humiliating his Crimson Guards the way you did was an insult he simply couldn't ignore. I don't believe I need to talk about how he could do so.”
Rayne slowly nodded. “Then I should thank you, Your Highness.”
Caelan smiled faintly before shaking his head.
“No,” he said. “You shouldn't, because I didn't invite you here simply to apologize, Squad Leader Rayne.”
Rayne wasn't particularly surprised that the prince already knew about his promotion. A member of the royal family would have an information network far beyond anything he could imagine, and news about Rayne would also flow from one ear to another easily because of how infamous he was.
At the same time, he could also tell that Caelan hadn't addressed him as Squad Leader Rayne by coincidence. The prince had deliberately let him know how quickly information reached him.
It was a subtle reminder of the influence sitting across the table.
Even so, Rayne ignored it and asked, “Why did you call me here, Your Highness?”
Prince Caelan smiled faintly before taking another bite of his steak. Only after swallowing did he answer.
“To give you an opportunity.”
“An opportunity?”
“Yes, you should already know that your warband will be moving toward the Godless Ruins and acting as my force for however long I remain there.” Rayne gave a small nod. “But do you know why I wish to go there?”
Rayne slowly shook his head. That question had crossed his mind more than once over the past day. Captain Edran hadn't known the answer either, and every explanation he had managed to come up with sounded incomplete.
At best, he had assumed Prince Caelan wished to prove something by venturing into one of the most dangerous places in the kingdom and returning alive. Now, however, it sounded as though there had always been another reason.
After thinking for a few moments, Rayne decided to take a guess.
“Do you want something from there, Your Highness?”
The Viscount sitting beside him let out a low grunt. “So you aren't an idiot after all.”
Caelan chuckled softly. “I told you he wasn't, Aldric.”
The prince then shifted his gaze back toward Rayne, his expression growing a little more serious.
“Yes,” he admitted. “There is something I need from the ruins.”
“One of the treasures buried there?” Rayne asked.
Prince Caelan immediately clicked his tongue. “I can obtain almost any treasure I desire without ever leaving Valers,” he said, shaking his head. “Why would I willingly march into the Godless Ruins if all I wanted was gold, artifacts, or relics that someone else could simply retrieve for me?”
Rayne quietly cut another piece from the steak.
Honestly, there was no way he could know what a prince wanted. Their lives were so vastly different that trying to understand the desires of royalty felt almost impossible.
Seeing the uncertainty on his face, Caelan leaned back slightly.
“You know,” he said, “I'll give you a hint. I'm going there because I want the most precious thing hidden inside the Godless Ruins.”
Rayne paused eating at those words.
His mind immediately raced through everything he had read about the ruins. Every page of the book Casper had given him flashed through his thoughts one after another until eventually one possibility surfaced above all the others.
The realization made him go still.
Even as the answer formed inside his head, he wasn't entirely certain the thing was even real. Most scholars believed it was nothing more than a myth. Others argued it had been destroyed centuries ago.
Still, the more he thought about it, the more every clue pointed towards that.
Finally, Rayne looked up. “You're going there... to find the lost Sanctum of the Sage?”
As soon as he said that, Prince Caelan grinned.