First Tale : Odin's Trust
Chapter I

"Tales are strange things that are told from one generation to another. Even the worst of tales are passed from generation to generation faithfully and sometimes, even the best are forgotten. One knows not how tales are made, or how they are told, but one does know that a true tale has a past, which influences all of the present. From that present arises the true future, which we must seek. To understand the past, one must first understand those who influenced the workings of time and thus, molded the past into an image of themselves or into a shape of their own preference. To understand the past, one must understand the deeds of greatness, the power of those who stood against what we now know as evil. But truly, what is evil? Do we understand its essence? Do we understand the necessity, which drives people to do evil? Have we looked into the depth of evil and perceived the true nature of those who serve it? Who knows? When will we know? Only time will tell us this."

- The words of Sigmund. W. Pronterus, Historian, Prontera Capital Library

"Watch your stance, Riyu. One small mistake and your enemy will be able to pierce your guard.", said Hijo Ramurao.

The sword master was clad in a white silk robe with ancient writings embossed on the right sleeve. Further scrutiny revealed a long, thin sword hidden underneath the robe, sheathed in a scabbard and held around the waste by a belt. It was obvious that the sword had taken quite a lot of skill to forge. Any sword that thin and sleek required a great amount of expertise in the art of iron and steel tempering to forge. Even the slightest mistake resulted in the blade being split in two. What was worse, those thin blades were extremely difficult to use and the tactics and techniques used with the sword were very difficult to master, since they were altogether different from the traditional swordsman techniques. Most swordsmen used wider and longer blades to slice open their targets and for many of them, that style proved to be the best. It was a rare sight indeed to see one such as Hijo Ramurao, a swordsman who had mastered the katana blade. He was about six feet in height and had a lean build, but the more observant of people were quick to note the powerful muscles that were housed in that apparently thin body. Those muscles had not been developed for brute slashing. They had been developed for speed! Pure speed and technique, those were the traits of sword master Hijo. The Hijo Tet'suname Dojo had been built by the sword master himself, about fifty years ago, and it was here that he instructed the few students that he used to get in the art of wielding the katana blade. Of those few, only a handful would graduate beyond basic training and others would drop out to learn the more traditional styles of sword fighting. The selected few, or in other words the gifted few, were forced to go through ten weeks of intensive training in physical and mental discipline. Warriors of the Tet'suname technique were renowned as the best swordsmen in the kingdom of Rune Midgard, but they were scarce commodities. Most Tet'suname swordsmen preferred traveling in the wilderness and training further to improve their fighting style and perhaps, one day, invent their own sword techniques. Although this had been an incredibly difficult task, even for Hijo Ramurao, there had been a few successful students who had been recruited into the kingdom's royal bodyguard due to their prowess with the sword. Even though most teachers would have been delighted that their students had attained such prestigious royal posts, master Hijo had become quite angry and agitated when he learnt about it. He sincerely hoped that his latest student would not succumb to the temptation and join the royal bodyguards.

Riyu Kikame looked at his master warily and then turned his attention back to his sword. There had been times when Riyu had felt like giving up on the Tet'suname fighting style. The art itself was difficult enough, but master Hijo insisted on many exhausting exercises to improve his fighting capabilities. As far as Riyu was concerned, the whole ordeal had left him for worse than for better. He didn't feel like he was getting anywhere near sword mastery and that bothered him. Still, Riyu Kikame had learnt to have faith in his master. Even in times of doubt, the sword master had displayed excellent leadership skills and had solved Riyu's problems time and again. That had resulted in a bond of loyalty and trust and Riyu was not interested in breaking that bond anytime soon, even if his sword style had not developed to the master's satisfaction. Coming from a middle class family, Riyu had grown up watching many of master Hijo's students try and fail in mastering the Tet'suname fighting style. He had also watched those who succeeded and had tried continuously to emulate them since his childhood. He had succeeded in capturing master Hijo's attention and thus, gotten admission into the dojo where the master had initiated him in the art of katana blade mastery.

"Come, come, Riyu. We do not have all day. You remember the tournament today, do you not? Begin your exercise immediately. I want you to practice hard for the next couple of hours or your chances of winning the tournament are slim."

Riyu simply nodded and began practicing his sword swings. He was a handsome youth, with dark blue eyes and pale blue hair. Like sword master Hijo, he too had a lean body build, but none of the master's muscles had yet developed in the student. Training had, however, hardened him to the problems of simple living, while introducing him to its pleasures. Hard work had been a part of that rigorous training and Riyu had finally succeeded in keeping a job in one of the capital city's small smithies. The work enabled him to contribute to the upkeep of the dojo while saving much needed Zenny, the currency of Rune Midgard, for later use. It was common knowledge that the weapons and armor used by adventurers were hideously expensive in most of the kingdom's city shops. The delicate forging techniques and expertise required to make those weapons and armor had resulted in rising prices, while the haggling merchants had added their share of profits as well. The result had been that no adventurer could venture forth into the wild, with adequate protection, without some source of funding. The bright side of the situation was that the adventurers were forced to work for their money and thus were able to establish themselves and get work in any other part of the world. The downside was that most people were never able to gather enough to accomplish their dreams. The braver warriors would step out into the wild with the lowest quality protection that they could afford and some had actually gone on to acquire a lot of wealth and fame. Most, however, would fall to the monsters that crossed their path. Protection was important and Riyu remembered what his master had told him,

"Prevention, Riyu, is better than cure. To nurse the wounded back to health is a lot easier than bringing the dead back to life. Remember that when it is your time to go out into the world."

The dead came back, of course. That was one of the magical features of Rune Midgard. There really was no death for those who wished to return to the land of the living. Their deceased souls would simply be reincarnated near a gravesite or inside a church and they would once more venture against the unknown. Death, however, brought its own penalties. Riyu had watched the reincarnation of many dead warriors and he had seen them wake up as if from a deep sleep. They always looked weaker than before and required a lot of training to regain their original power. Perhaps the loss of their skill and strength was the price of life. As far as Riyu was concerned, death was not an option. He had trained and was still training himself in the art of the Tet'suname technique and he had promised himself to learn to conquer even death. That was his ultimate goal, the purpose of his life. He would gain the power to be better than anyone else, the power to be the greatest swordsman in all of Rune Midgard. The oracles of the Prontera Church had not been able to predict Riyu's destiny at birth, like they did for other citizens of Rune Midgard, and he had been dubbed as an adventurer then and there. The oracles of Rune Midgard were unable to see into the future of warriors. Although they could extract bits and pieces of that future, there were far too many choices in a warrior's life for it to be predicted clearly. Their web of life seemed to change at every turn and each choice changed the web greatly. Sometimes various strands would snap and the oracles would find themselves lost in the void of darkness and at other times, new strands would suddenly come up and blur the vision of the future. Thus, the oracles had barred themselves and others like them from seeing into the future of adventurers. Those who were strange and different were to be left untouched, to find their own destiny, for no oracle could survive the void of darkness. Horrible experiences had taught them to fear it and the altering web of life had further reinforced their decision to stay away.

So it was that one Riyu Kikame found himself making his own decisions, confronting every little thing that came in his path and sorting out every hurdle that was thrown at him. Oh, not for him the luxury of knowing what he would in the future! Not for him the preplanned life that the oracles gave the common citizens. For him, it was the life of a warrior, the unknown life. Time and again, his heart had longed for a peaceful life, a kind of life with no hardships, no training exercises and no death. But Riyu's mind had rejected this alternative. He had no intention of living like a common man. His skill with the sword was extraordinary and although he did not realize it himself, he knew that master Hijo had thrown out better trained warriors than him before. So there had to be some good reason that he was still around and Riyu intended to use all the available time at the dojo to perfect his technique. So it was that one sword trainee Riyu Kikame practiced the art of the katana blade and one sword master Hijo Ramurao supervised his training when a luxurious state carriage pulled up outside the Hijo Tet'suname Dojo.