Right at the moment, Hanabi wonder his thoughts away from reality, as he's considerably anxious while barely moving from his seat in front of Mother Lilith's desk. Due to her having few paperworks to take care with, Hanabi manage to not get scolded from being home very late yesterday, as he arrived right after the sun fully set to the horizon. Back to the present, Hanabi was supposed to be leaving after meal, yet he was ordered to go to Mother Lilith's office immediately for something he was not told for the reason why, which did not sound like a good news in his opinion.
Mother Lilith always the one who first to talk specially from the present circumstances, however, she have few paperworks she currently doing, which made him unable to afford talking, fearing to disrespect her.
"how's the market this days." Mother Lilith suddenly speak, which almost suprised Hanabi.
Due to being anxious for quite some time, Hanabi find it hard to respond. "we..ll...... most days, the crowd seems to increased."
Mother Lilith looks at him for few seconds, worried for some reason, which baffled Hanabi as she's been always serious and rarely show an emotion, not to mention, it's something even him could easily tell.
Mother Lilith stopped what she's doing temporarily, as she sigh, fully giving to Hanabi her attention. "at the southwest of the kingdom, crime began to get worse." a very serious expression as she talks. "crimes about people getting kidnapped increased lately, specially the children."
He knows poverty got worse as the days roles by as some minor event is also happening in almost at the daily basis at the market, yet his innocence about the worse that happening at the other place, made Hanabi worried for himself. "I never heard of such thing."
"You're not supposed to." Mother Lilith brushes off what he said. "Understand if I ever, hear a news about the situation spread, that already reached close to the market, you will not leaving here, until the situation stops." a rather sharp tone, like a threatening voice, yet behind it was just a mother showing her love to a mischievous child. Needless to say, Hanabi did not object.
While showing some great anxiety and nervousness he answered "understand Mother Lilith." Mother Lilith shift back to her usual serious and unreasonable face while she reach something under her desk. In her hand is a few envelope, knotted together. "I supposed you know the mail office was?" Mother Lilith ask, while putting the envelope to the desk close to him.
"Yes. It was just closed to the adventurers guild." Hanabi answered without putting much thought.
"I supposed you know that place well." mother Lilith respond like she knew he would answer that way. From there Hanabi realize as he remembers that he was not supposed to go further to the market, Which made him panic internally. Because of that, he fail to noticed, mother Lilith placed a bucket of flowers to the desk along side the envelope. Hanabi was not surprised about the bucket, and know where he would go for it. "I understand what we discussed earlier, even so I still trust that you're gonna be safe. None of us have free time at the moment, so I want you to take care of this for me." she orders.
Hanabi was surprised not because of the order, but because he was not scolded, which left him dumbfounded, and immediately left fulfilling her orders.
As the wind passing through him, while walking along the road, the danger he was told about made him thought twice to go at the market this time, though, even before he heard the news he was already sceptical on going. Yet since he has an order to fulfill, he deliberately walk ,wanting to finish the quest as soon as possible.
The Market feels odd compared to before, usually a lot of empty shelf lying around unused waiting for someone to give it a use. But as for today is different, most shelves was occupied by random people, Hanabi don't recognize, supposedly things like this was normal. the thing he find suspicious, was the fact that, most of the new vendors was selling random things, which is the cheapest products people can find around, yet most of the item they were selling was something already weathered and used.
As he looked around, he suddenly felt someone was looking at him while passing through, which annoyed him a lot, and made him fell uncomfortable. As Hanabi left the market he proceeds to go to the mail office to deliver the envelope Mother Lilith asked him to do, which not exactly hard to do. Right after, he proceeds to go to the second order he was told to.
Behind the Adventurers guild, is a small cemetery mainly used by commoners, in the middle is a huge statue of a supposed God in which people who lost their beloved loved once pray occasionally. Someone who used to be an orphan, just died yesterday, from the mission he accept as an adventurer. The person never have family, so the orphanage is the only family he have who could pray for him. Dead body of a human always being burned to ashes, preventing the possibility of necromancy, since the kingdom usually experienced incident from people who hide the body of their dead love ones. He put the flower in front of the statue, as he proceeded to pray, then left without looking back.
To the place where now his liar, placed somewhere unknown to everyone, in which there's no man except him was aware of, from there no man knows where he was. Inside the place is an uncleaned sight, made from scattered things he didn't put back inside the pouch before he left. Realized the time was his, he choose to use it for something he finds more valuable. As he returned everything back to where it used to be, he realized most of it is something he can't find to know. Even though curiosity wants to stray from what he decides to do, he value his purpose and let all slip through, thinking that one day he might be able to explore all these things. Right after cleaning the place, Hanabi reopens the book from the page where his magic stats was written, filled with excitement and anticipation Hanabi can't help but to smile subconsciously. Yesterday, as he's having fun, he began to try the very first basic training written from the book, which has something to do with magic control. something of release, then expand while in control of the flow, sometimes the opposite, which is control and condense, as one coat the magic flow around the body, though they were different, the training was about increasing the quality and quantity of the ones magic capacity. Base on the chart about his stats shown from him, Hanabi saw that he has affinity for all basic types of magic, yet his greatest was water, which he find strange and confused while thinking for the reason, which made him speculate about the humans elemental affinity not being associated with their life experience.
A joyous morning, awakened by the smell of the freshly cooked food like they're about to have feast, that was so rare to happened, the excitement of the children as they can't wait for the meal that was about to be served to their respective table.
Yesterday, after Hanabi's training from his hidden lair, he noticed from the grassland, in a distance, is a sight of a wide field of grass was crushed to the ground, as if something of a giant creature slide through. Looking at the distance, as Hanabi was won over by curiousity, as he wanna know what just land over the area. However! As he wander around the field, even if he wasn't supposed to, from the middle, to the other end of the plain was besmirched with a trail of chaos as if something of a two large creature fought here for a long period of time. A splash of blood watered the ground, a crushed, cut and uprooted plants and grass, a trail of claw to the ground and a stampede of monsters can be seen everywhere, A chaos that happened just last night yet he didn't noticed before when he was passing to it while going to the market.
A mountain of soil can be seen from the end of the trail where Hanabi is standing, something like a mountain of grass that piled up, and a blood flowing out underneath it, that river the ground that paint everything with red.
it was a remain from a defeated creature, a body without a life. Without a life it won't possess any danger, a lifeless body who's not from a human, if it's not a human! It can be consumed. Hanabi grab a peace of meat and continue walking to the orphanage, to tell everyone what he just found.
A melody in the diner, a rare occasion, where everyone eat without any worries for tomorrow, rest for now on thinking what to eat in the future, the important is the food later will tastes like feast. They eat as many as they can as a reward for the hardwork, after retrieving the meat Hanabi found.
As he walks back to the orphanage, after he noticed that the sun is about to set, a horrible feeling never left him even though he's already far from the market. He noticed the unpleasant feeling the moment he arrived at the market this morning, reason why he didn't stay long, and just go pass to the other side. He knew something is happening this time.
Along the way through the road, between the end of the plains and the little forest, a stranger from a far distance shades under the tall tree, could be seen seating on the ground. Looking like a rogue, as the face was masked and covered, while wearing a robe, and from the built of the person's physic, the person seems to be a man, waiting for his companions. Hanabi was not too surprised seeing strangers at the area, as even though uncommon, he already saw few people around who's usually on a quest or something related to it, and because the side of the road is the only closest shade they could find, those who visits the plains usually could be seen at the side of the road before and after their quest. But this time is different, Hanabi knew nothing right will going to happened once he got close to the person.
The moment he got closer, a pair of strangers walk behind him really close yet silent, Hanabi suspects they were using some sort of magic item that can conceal their presence, which could be enough for a normal person not to notice them. Hanabi pretend not know what's happening, giving them a fall sense of relief for thinking whatever plan they're having, it's not failing. Hanabi could detect them, thanks to the magic training he's been doing this past days. Apparently, once a magic user managed to increased their magic capacity in significant level, it allows the person to enhance some of their physical traits, because of it Hanabi made his senses sharper, though he doubt he won't detect those who tailed him even if he did not train.
When he got close enough, as the rogue pretends to just noticed Hanabi, he look back and forth each end, pretending to be confused, even though Hanabi knew the rogue was making sure no one was close enough to interrupt. As Hanabi got closed enough. The rogue began to communicate with a soft friendly tone "are you lost little boy?". He began standing up while looking at the people behind hanabi.
Hanabi was impressed that he can't detect him lying. He plays along their scheme and pretend to be an ignorant to what's happening, Atleast until they show their true colors. He answers "No, I'm an orphan, I'm now heading back to the orphanage."
The rogue clearly new he's going to answer him that way, and since Hanabi was just a child, he becomes rather impatient and confident. "you know" as he let out his sword "I'm also lost, you need to come with me, and show me where to go." As the blade pointed at Hanabi, the two who followed him finally shows up.
Even so, Hanabi was thankful that they did show their true colors, which will might decreased the guilt he's gonna feel for what he's about to do. Confident since he was just a child, seemingly not the first time they did such act, they talk like he doesn't matter, which gave him an easy time to grab something inside his pocket. It's a sheet of small rectangular paper with a symbol written it, as it began to glow the moment Hanabi holds it. One of the stranger noticed the glow and grab his Hanabi's shoulder, to investigate. However it's too late, even before Hanabi could fully turn around, the three already vanished, and Hanabi proceeds to walk like nothing happened, as the paper he was holding turns into dust.
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