She had been following him for quite a while now. Ever since she left the Izlude Academy, after a long farewell lecture from the passionate principal, she was wondering around without any vivid aspiration until she came across with him again. Impressed but yet quite bewildered how on earth he looked strong and cool in that chain armor. She recalled, it was only a week ago when they walked out from the classroom together.
Keeping her distance while watching him bashing those spores effortlessly, she wondered how strong he might be. He must had been fighting so hard or either, she just wasted her time chasing Porings for fun rather than training wielding a sword. She did not even bother to consider what she wanted to be. Are not life supposed to be enjoyed?
Suddenly he flew away. She was puzzled why he left the strawberry on the ground. Maybe, he did noticed her all along and wanted to help somehow. The tittle-tattle across the Payon plaza were mainly about how the prices inflated lately. People were complaining the prices for so many reasons. She heard that clan war will be happened soon, again, thus the elites publicizing offers to collect supplies before the war began. So, he wanted to join the war? She tried to contemplate it. Everyone wanted to own the Emperium stone along with its treasures. It proved your praiseworthiness, nobility and strength. It was said that the Emperium stone placed inner most of the castle can be used to imbue any weapon or armor to craft a godly equipment. It can only be done when it started to glow and radiating. The strange energy that circulating throughout the castle will be the sign; the war between guilds just around the corner.
Sounded too much for an ambition, she convinced herself that she will never be a part of the elites, let alone touching the Emperium. She had to worry about buying better equipment to travel further – starting with collecting some strawberries. Just a step away from it, however, she smelt a pleasant odor, which she recognized for sure was Sakura, distracted her for a second before she found out that the strawberry went missing. She was dumbfounded. She swore she saw a glimpse of falling Sakuras just now, but there were no such trees around. If there were people around, she will be their joke all day long. Then there were sounds of footsteps around and tiny chuckle, strangely enough for her it was there but cannot be seen. The easiest consideration she could think of was to leave but the sounds seemed to be coming after at the same pace as hers. She had a bad feeling about it.
She turned around as she pointed her knife randomly at every direction. Funny enough, it was just a strange moving pupa crossing by. But when she turned back, she was taken by surprise. A figure of a naked man with his whole body pierced with metals standing slightly tilted in front of her with one hand up in the air. Her instinct guided her hand to grab a fly wing in the pocket, but she forgot that she had used them all. ‘I’m dead’, she thought rather than shouting – it just made her death looked miserable. She saw it, the man’s hand was directly slammed on her but it was like hitting an invincible wall. Before she could even blink, a raging blue flames appeared out from nowhere instantly burned him to ashes.
“You alright?” a man riding on a fierce looking dragon winked at her. That full-body-scaled-armor with red aura, black wings along with the royal hammer in his hand were more than enough to tell that he must be from the elites, like those Gryphon riders in Juno. The crest on his chest indicated his affiliation with a guild. From what she had known about, it was one of the most feared association in Prontera. Mighty – that was her honest impression.
“I guess so,” she replied hesitantly. She figured out that the barrier spell around her was the life saver. “Thank you, Mister.”
“It’s not safe here at this time around,” a long-haired woman, appeared to be his companion, said with concern. “You should ahead back to Payon.”
“The cursed city is far away. There’s no way they can reach here,” she took out a map and showed it to them. They replied with cynical, but polite laugh.
“Obviously, someone summoned it here,” the man said as he looked around. “A branch from a cursed dead tree can bring forth a monster with just a simple magic spell.”
“Really? I knew it. I felt like someone is stalking on me, then suddenly that ugly undead appeared from nowhere.”
“Nothing to be surprised. Somebody is trying to harm you,” the man said. “But that’s why we’re here. We received reports from our guild members about this situation. It must be those troublemakers again.”
“Who?”
“Rivals,” the woman replied. “They are trying to mess things around. Typical thing to do when tension rises up between guilds. Not to mention those brain-dead people are making things even more complicated.”
“We have to go,” the man winked.
“The heck, his dragon winked at me too,” she thought. “They must be sibling in previous life.”
“Here you go,” the woman tapped her shoulder and chanted. She felt a force, more like a warm flow of energy surged through her whole body. She could feel her body became lighter and transparent aura resembled glass surrounded her like a living shield. She felt refreshed more than ever. “May the gods protect you,” she added before waving a goodbye. The sense of secure she felt just now slowly drained away with the growing distance between them. The only thing left was the voice of the man laughing, commanding his dragon to burn every moving thing in their path. Coolness and idiocy, combined.
She decided to run ahead back to Payon. She did not want the same thing happened again – she was lucky enough to be saved by some passersby. The calmness in the forest was a good sign of safety, at least, where no strange noises or rough activities went on. Perfect for a quick rest. Payon Town was not that far anymore and she could reach there before sunset.
Was it coincidence again, to see him, the one that she followed from the beginning? He appeared to be resting as well. Well, it should be a good timing to approach him and warn about the situation around.
“Hello,” she called. “The area isn’t safe.” He did not say anything, not even lifting up his face to look at her. Her expectation was correct about the people. Everyone was busy with their own business to the point where even words were expensive. After being polite to everyone all this time, she thought this guy here will be the first one to be treated rude. “I’m talking to you! Are you deaf? You know, I lost my poring pet yesterday just to find a chance to talk to you. Why don’t you at least say hi? Why, because I’m weak? Okay, I challenge you. Izlude.”
He suddenly stood up, pulled out his crimson colored sword from its sheath. But then he nailed on his feet with his eyes locked on hers. At that moment of time, for the first time she saw clearly in his dark purple eyes, she felt like looking at a body without a soul.
The ground shock before lights radiated from underneath. It shone so bright that it blinded her. Another trouble? What now? Before she could finish reasoning, the brightness disappeared as quickly as it appeared and scenery suddenly changed. There were walls and bars everywhere. Even more surprising, there were people around, lots of them. She panicked seeing people moving around randomly, disorientated, sometimes bumped to each other and even more bizarre there were some walked against the wall unstop. Are they all crazy?
An official, looking by his attire, approached her and took her away from the group. He signaled her to take a seat as she was still staring on those people. She eventually obeyed but the official did not drop out his suspicious look on her.
“What’s going on here?” she asked.
“How are you today?” he asked her instead.
“Where is this place? Why am I here?”
“What’s your favorite food?”
“Huh? Are you one of them as well?”
The official sighed. “Okay, you seem legit.”
“I-am-not-illegal.”
“You talked to that person earlier, no?” he pointed to the person she was following before. He was standing still without any movement. “Did you do agreed upon... something?”
“What, what something? No. We agreed nothing. And you, who are you?”
“I’m twenty-one, Government Mediator.”
“Your name is Twenty-One? Why, your parents ran out of name to think of?”
“You have gut to joke around at this place,” he smirked. “This place is criminal’s worst nightmare. Most of them will be locked here for eternity.”
She covered her mouth and smiled with her eyes. “What… all this has anything to do with me?”
“You’re suspected of practicing forbidden spell or taking part of it.”
“Forbidden spell? Until today, all I did was wondering around the forest. I know nothing. Nobody bothered to tell me anything.”
Another man came in and whispered in his ear.
“It seems that we found no malevolent association of the forbidden spell to your soul. We are preparing to send you back to any city of your choice.”
She took a brief look to the young man among the disorientated people. She felt a slight pity for him – she was not expecting the issue would be this serious – she just wanted to talk to him about things he had gone through since they parted ways from the Izlude Academy. Now she learned that he was apprehended for something that might not have any chance of redemption. She wanted to know more.
“What is that Forbidden Spell?” she looked at the official curiously.
“Your thought is heading to the wrong direction,” he knitted his brows.
“You lost your soul once you practiced it?”
The official crossed his hands across his chest, considering if he should say anything or just send her off to any city. But it looked that she had a special connection to the young man, thus she really wanted to know. “Not really. You derived how long the spell works on you. When it’s cast on you, you lose control of your consciousness and you only acted according to the spell contract. You’ll acquire limitless mental strength though your body might take the toll. It… was partly our mistake. Long time ago, at the time of wars with Republic of Schwartzvald, we desperately wanted to train soldiers using that spell. As time goes by, people who worked on that spell started using it for bad or wrong intentions. Today, people made profit out from it without thinking of the bad consequences.”
“Giving off your soul for strength, huh?” she said to herself. “But getting stronger is hard. For a commoner like me, even living is a struggle.”
“Everybody’s life is tough.”
“I need powerful equipment to get stronger. I’m not even registered as Elites to have rights to buy and use government’s exclusive equipment. So… lend me zeny please,” she drew her hand towards him.
“This one little brat,” he sighed. “Look, you can start off by doing bounties which you can found in the cities. Gather some stuff along your journey and sell it to the merchants. Also keep your eyes peeled for government endorsed requests. Of course it takes time, but one day you’ll be proud of your progress. Anyway, I’ll convey your concern to Sir Camp.”
She pondered long and looked at the soulless young man again, for the last time.
“I’m ready,” she said.
“City of choice?” the official offered politely.