Will of the Battlefield

Thane opened his eyes, he was somewhere else. It was a dimly lit room, he looked around.

"Good evening, sunshine," he heard Max.

Thane turned towards him, only to find him swaying on a rocking chair.

There was a needle stabbed into Thane’s arm, a very thin tube was connected to it, leading to a small sack.

"What is that?" Thane asked. He never saw such a thing. He was not anxious, he now considered Max a friend.

"A drip, a revolutionary medical method of delivering medical fluids or nutrients directly into the bloodstream through that tube inserted right into your vein.

It is very new but extremely expensive. None of the other kingdoms have it yet, that’s something the Bentram Kingdom wanted to keep for itself," Max explained with a wink.

"Where am I?" Thane asked and grunted, his body was screaming in pain.

His face was still numb, especially his left side. Fortunately, he could see with both eyes now.

"You are at Uncle John’s home, the small commorancy owned by the House of Prada.

Anyways, enough questions. How do you feel?" Max questioned as he picked up a foot long square mirror.

"My chest hurts, my shoulder too." He moved his leg. "Oww, legs too."

Max brought the mirror and held it before Thane’s face. The giant finally saw his own face after that brutal fight.

His brow was covered in a small bandage, his lip was stitched and so was his cheek. His left side face was bluish and the right was florid.

"My pretty face is scarred!" Thane said with regret.

Max smacked his lips. "Umm... no it’s not."

"Not scarred?" Thane asked with hope.

"Not pretty," Max replied as he took a few steps back, creating a necessary distance. There was a sly smirk on his face.

"Piss off." Thane scowled, his sight caught the bandage on Max’s neck.

Max followed his sight and understood what his mind was processing. "It’s not deep, no stitches were used.

It wasn’t your fault yet you wiped the floo... no, you broke the floor with his body."

Thane finally smiled sincerely, he couldn’t remember clearly, but he recalled slamming Topda again and again.

Max laughed and sat in front of Thane. "I have two bad news and one good news. What must I share first?"

"Bad news, obviously," Thane said, rotating his arm gradually to check the pain.

"First bad news, you are not going to participate in the Aspirant Test." There was sadness on his face.

"Ridiculous, next," Thane retorted heedlessly.

Max nodded nimbly as if he had expected the news.

"Coming to the second news, your father was informed about your fight."

Thane’s facial expressions changed, he squirmed a bit before asking. "Who told him?"

"Reginald Seraph," Max uttered the name.

Thane pouted his lips before licking them, he could still taste the blood. "Well, that was hasty of him."

There was no fear nor tension on his face, Max looked at him in puzzlement. "Your father knows that you have fought an illegal unlicensed fighter."

"Yeah, so what? You don’t know my family, is he coming?" Thane chuckled.

Max sighed. "No, he has sent your sister instead."

Now, Thane’s face twisted. "Eudora is coming?"

"If that’s the name of your sister then yeah bud, she is on her way," Max answered.

Thane was genuinely scared now, Max could see it. "You scared of your sister?"

"Shut up, even my father is scared of my sister," Thane replied.

Max raised his right brow in astonishment. "Oh shit, now I’m getting scared. Don’t sell me out, you hear me."

"They already know everything, who do you think my father is?" Thane licked his lips again.

"One of the five counts in this kingdom, sure thing he knows." Max scratched his chin.

"What’s the good news?"

Max rubbed his hands in excitement. "The good news is... you are fucking rich."

"In the names of all Gods, Max, I hate swearwords," Thane fumed.

"Gods, that’s what you care about in my statement. You are rich, filthy rich, richer than me at this point, you brain dead brute," Max shouted.

"Richer than Goldcasters?" Thane repeated, although a bit incorrectly.

Max slapped his forehead. "No, no, not goldcasters. Just me, individually."

Thane was confused, he scratched his head until he remembered something. "Oh gods, the 1000 gold coins reward. Dang, I totally forgot about it."

Max was now disappointed, the respect Thane earned was now diminishing slowly in his eyes.

"My dear Thane, what in the world of nonsense made you think that a mere sum of 1000 coins would put you in the ranks of wealthy people?" There was mockery in his tone.

"Enlighten me, O greatest mind of Bentram," Thane retorted to Max in his own tone.

Max was forced to laugh and so did Thane, the duo cackled for a brief period of time.

"Your odds of winning were 8/1, you know what that means?" Max began his explanation.

Thane shook his head at the question, he only bet cookies and candies when he was a kid.

"That means if anyone had bet 1000 gold coins on you, he would have won 8000 coins."

Thane was now understanding.

"I placed 13,000 and won 104,000 gold coins, Hawk won 17,152 and Uncle John got 32,000."

Thane’s mind was now blank, he couldn’t comprehend how much money that was.

"The highest bet was from Reginald Seraph, he placed 100,000 gold coins on you and he won 800,000 gold coins."

Thane remained uninterested. "You are flexing your and others’ wins, how the heck am I rich, you damn swindler?"

"Reginald gave you a gift, he earned 800,000 gold coins because of you. So, he gave 100,000 gold coins to you," Max said.

Thane was blinking his eyes. "Hundre.. You mean hundr-"

"Shush, I’m still talking." Max said and put a finger on his lips.

"After that, we all decided to give the original amount of the bet to you.

My 13,000, Hawk’s 2,144 and Uncle John’s 4,000. Together with the reward of the fight, it’s around 120,144 gold coins.

And don’t you fuck- dare to return any of it back. Otherwise, we won’t be able to raise our heads in pride, we already won big."

Max stood, leaving Thane on the bed to collect his thoughts.

He moved towards a safe at the nearest corner, it was 5 feet tall and two feet wide.

Max opened it, sparklingly scintillating golden lights beamed out of it.

As the door fully opened, what was hidden in it before was now visible.

There were golden bricks inside the safe, piled in harmony. On top of them were several gold coins.

"120 bricks and," he said as he picked a golden coin from the safe, shuffled it between his fingers and continued. "144 gold coins."

He tossed the coin back and uttered. "One brick is worth ten thousand gold coins."

He looked back at Thane, only to find his mouth wide open, as if he was possessed by a ghost.

"Uhh, Thane. You good there, buddy?"

Thane snapped back into reality, he blinked his eyes wildly but the golden shine was still there. He spun his arm, bit his lip and felt the pain as well.

"This is not a dream?" Thane couldn’t believe that. "Max slap me," he said.

"Haha, gladly," Max replied in glee, unheedful of the injuries.

"THAA"