The Cursed Prince

After Mars and Gewen got their short rest, they left the hydra and rode toward the witch's mansion. Once they were out of the haunted forest, the feeling of relief filled their chests. They took in a deep breath of fresh air and looked at the clear blue sky.

Finally, they had gone through the most difficult part of this mission. Now, they just needed to meet Elmer in the mansion and then waited for the witch to return home. And then.. the show began.

"It looks like our men have managed to kill all the blood-red eagles," Gewen commented as they rode past the place where he left his archers to deal with the eagles.

Mars nodded. He saw over half a dozen corpses of the blood-red eagles spread around them. He made a mental note to reward his people for their bravery after this mission with some golds.

Ah, he also needed to pay a visit to the family of the man who died earlier after being attacked by the eagles.

The knight had done a great service to the prince and this kingdom and his family would be taken care of.

"Let's go up," Mars said to Gewen and the other knight. "I hope Bruinen and the others have gone there too."

They dashed their horses to climb the hill to get to the witch's mansion.  Now the sun was already high in the sky. Because he had been in the haunted forest for a long time, Mars did not realize that several hours had passed since they had first entered the forest.

After climbing up the hill for half an hour, they finally arrived in front of the mansion that they saw from the foot of the hill. It was a medium-sized mansion in grey and looked quite old.

Mars remembered the townspeople said that the witch had been living in this mansion for almost three decades, but it looked like this house was so much older than that.

Perhaps, it was built over a hundred years ago and she just stayed here to hide after she cursed the Draec's royal family?

"Your Highness, you are here!" Bruinen came out of the mansion and welcomed the prince once he heard the sounds of horses entering the courtyard.

"You have defeated the werewolf?" Mars asked the young wizard.

Bruinen bowed his head down a little and replied, "Yes, Your Highness. We outnumbered him and could easily defeat him. We wanted to find you but we lost track and then decided to find a way out so we can catch up with my master."

"It's okay. Gewen helped me and we defeated the hydra," Mars said. "By the way, just for your information, the monster's heads can grow back after you cut them."

"And it gets worse! Actually, for every head that we cut, two would grow back," Gewen chirped to add for the information. He didn't see the hydra grow two heads in place of one, but he had heard the story from the prince, so he felt the need to add to the information shared by Mars.

"What? Two???" Bruinen was astounded when he heard the prince's and Gewen's explanation.

His eyes bulged and the man gulped. From what he read so far, hydra had five heads, but sometimes people said it was seven.

Now, Gewen's explanation made sense to Bruinen. Maybe that's why the information he received was varied. Some people saw the hydra with its original five heads, while the others might see it after two of the heads were cut and two additional ones grew after the heads grew back.

What a marvelous creature. He regretted the fact that he didn't get to see it with his own eyes. Bruinen loved knowledge and he would have loved the opportunity to study the monster.

"Yeah, Gewen is right," Mars nodded. "I made the mistake of cutting the original heads twice. The hydra ended up having seven heads and became so much more difficult to kill."

"So, how did you kill it?" Bruine was very curious. "Wait... it's dead, right?"

"Yeah, it's dead," Gewen replied. He smiled smugly and patted his chest. "I helped His Highness to kill the monster using the blood-red eagle's acidic blood to stop the neck stump from growing back the heads."

Bruinen was very impressed to hear Gewen. "That's brilliant! I wouldn't have thought of that."

He could imagine what happened during the battle. The acidic blood would burn the hydra's necks so badly and stop them from growing back the heads. 

Bruinen, too, suddenly had a newfound appreciation for Gewen when he heard his explanation.

After tolerating the womanizer for almost seven weeks, Bruinen could finally see the man with a different perspective. Apparently, Gewen could think of such a good strategy.

No wonder he was close to the crown prince and was now leading some of his armies as a general.

Mars knew Bruinen misunderstood too, just like he did before, thinking that Gewen was the one behind the idea on how to kill the hydra. However, he didn't bother to set the information straight.

So, what if Gewen was not the one to think of the method? He was there and he did a damn good job to help Mars. So, the prince wouldn't do anything to make Bruinen lose his respect for Gewen.

"It was a good idea," was all he said. He got off his horse and gave Snow's reins to the knight who came with him. Then he walked inside the mansion. "Has Elmer got the heart?"

Bruinen walked beside him, followed by Gewen. The young wizard replied, "Yes. Master found it and has kept it safe. We will soon return the heart to Lady Ellena. She will be okay. You don't have to worry about her anymore."

Mars wanted to roll his eyes when he heard Bruinen's words. He wasn't worried about Ellena's life.

He was mostly worried that he would be indebted to her for life if he couldn't pay back what she did for him by saving her heart.