Part one:
“Hey, I heard what happened! I hope you will get well soon, please write me back. Semi is also wishes you all the best! -Knuckles”.
“Hey, I feel awful about what happened. It was my fault, and I will make it up to you once I get released”.
Skil wrote the second S-mail.
Zafer opened his eyes.
He was comfortably lying on a bed, under two blankets in a small room.
On his left side was a door and on his right was a window opened to the tipper with almost fully closed curtains, barely letting the last dark-orange rays of sun inside.
The night was approaching, but midnight was still a long way off since it was autumn.
He slowly got up and approached the window.
Pulling the curtains aside, he peered into the courtyard, only to see the biggest magic flower conservatory in his life.
It glowed from within, and even though he had only seen it once before in person, Zafer was certain it was filled with flame flowers.
He could tell by the smell and the sensation caught in the air.
Aside from the conservatory, the yard was huge, as well as the house. He was currently in a room located in the attic.
It was only then that he noticed that both of his forearms as well as some parts of his abdomen were wrapped in several layers of soft white bandage.
These scars originated from yesterday’s torture, and they weren’t as easily healable with a red potion as one might expect.
If the red potion isn’t consumed in time, the living tissue will die, forming a scar or a wound.
These types of wounds required special treatment, usually taking several days to disappear.
For example, if one’s arm was cut in half and the body naturally repaired it, no amount of red potion would bring that arm back.
The arm would have to be cut open again because that was just how regeneration worked.
It could only heal fresh wounds, not scars.
Scars were bad.
Of course, Zafer as well as a majority of the people didn’t know anything about how scars are formed on a cellular level or what a tissue is.
Only educated people knew how to treat scars the right way, without scooping out the flesh and feeding the patient with a red potion.
He took another breath of the fresh air and then pulled his head inside the room, going to the door.
The whole house was illuminated with hand-made baskets filled with flame-flower fruits. Those emitted light.
The walls were decorated with paintings.
There was even a green banner with a Temper province symbol.
The white four-pointed star.
Zafer was obviously in a safe environment, inside the Gardens of the Elite, but the question was in whose house.
He couldn’t tell, since he never ventured deep enough to see anyone’s home, but there were only a few possibilities since only a couple of Temper paladins were allowed to have a stay here.
Those were Banana, all 5 of the officers, and 3 more individuals with special treatment.
One of them was the Priest!
Almost all rooms had sliding doors, and Zafer came across a slightly open one.
It was a dining room and he was dying of hunger. Couldn’t tell for how long he was sleeping.
Eating food at the officer's house on his own would be too rude, but entering a room just to look around wouldn’t hurt, right?
Just as he stepped into the room, he sensed soft footsteps from around the corner, and in just a few moments, a short girl appeared, carrying a blanket, bandages, and a couple of vials filled with some tincture.
She had white hair long to her chest, black eyes, and a very petite figure.
She was smaller than Zafer by a whole head!
“Hello”, Zafer greeted her.
“Hi”.
The silence reigned.
“I…just woke up”.
“I see”, she responded, “go take a bath. Downstairs left. I will bring you your clothes”.
She stood there continuing to stare at him.
Zafer nodded not sure if he should say anything.
He was too tired and weak, so he just obeyed the girl without further comments.
The Simple Physiology of Anomalies: Paragraph 4:
The strength of an anomaly was measured in “Verms” which was a new logarithmical SI base unit, where 1 Verm was equivalent to…
A system was established so that 24 Verms represent the very maximum intensity, while 0 the absence of an anomaly.
Since the biggest noticeable jump in strength of an anomaly was achieved after any primer number of Verms from 1 to 24, including 24 as an exception, non-prime values in Verms were neglected and rounded to their precursor (2, 3, 5, 7, 11, 13, 17, 19, 23 and 24).
If one’s anomaly strength was measured to be 16 Verms, it would be rounded up to 13, and treated accordingly.
Zafer could not remember the last time he enjoyed a bath so much to the point he just didn’t want to leave.
The water was coming from a thermal spring right next to the house, and everything was made out of such high-quality materials, from the tiled floor to the spacious bathtub.
This room was also illuminated with flower plant fruits, creating a very pleasing atmosphere.
The Gardens of the Elite lived up to its name and if he could just stay here forever, he probably would.
But that wasn’t important. His goals come first.
He put his clothes on and returned to the main room where the girl was waiting for him.
She was sitting at the low table, on a floor pillow, wearing a black-green uniform with a hat.
“It sure took you long”, she commented, but Zafer awkwardly ignored it and sat across her.
He expected her to continue talking, but instead, she just took a sip of the tee, staring at him.
“So, who are you?”, Zafer finally asked.
“Ika. An expert for love problems”, she responded.
The silence reigned once again.
“Who brought me here? Where are Skil and Nemo?”
“At Priest place. They are fine”
Zafer was starting to get irritated by her dry and short responses.
“And who brought me here?”
“The Priest”
“How”.
Ika exhaled, “Boy you ask so many questions, I wasn’t there! You will never find a loving girlfriend if all you do is worry!”
For some reason, Zafer took this as literal advice. He relaxed a bit knowing that Skil was fine.
Ika still wasn’t moving her big black eyes from him. It made him uncomfortable.
He had almost no experience with females, but also never cared enough.
One of Zafer’s unique features was that he felt no need to associate with the opposite gender or form any sort of relationship with them.
Besides, how could he form a bond with someone with whom he shares no similar interest?
All of Zafer’s friends were either paladins or freelancers. What could he possibly talk about with a female?
He lifted his gaze at Ika for a few seconds, but it was enough to notice an eye patch at her right eye.
He hadn’t noticed it before since it was slightly covered by her hair.
Unauthorized use of content: if you find this story on Amazon, report the violation.
“What’s wrong with your eye?”
Ika smiled slightly, “Huh, I bet you would really like to know”.
The silence reigned once again, and she was still staring him down.
This girl…
It was as if she wanted to talk to him but didn’t want to initiate anything on her own, sometimes even dodging his questions.
This can’t be how all females talk, right?
“Who are you actually?”
Ika shrugged her shoulders, but Zafer continued immediately.
“You know what I think? I think that you are someone’s wife or girlfriend. Maybe even a sister, but you won’t tell me whose.”
Ika frowned, “And why? Why can’t this all be mine?”.
Zafer was taken aback by this comment, his brain processing the context.
“You can’t be an officer”, he said unsurely.
Ika couldn’t believe this. She didn’t even frown. Just shocked.
“What?!”, she stood up aggressively, “do you see this coat?!”
Zafer now realized.
The infamous 5th officer of the Temper province was a girl! Ika was the 3rd richest person in the world!
“But why are you wearing it in your house?”
She changed while he was taking a bath.
“Why do you care? I like it”, she turned sideways a bit.
Zafer took a deeper look at the uniform. It really was immaculately crafted, and the combination of black with green edges created a sort of indescribable sensation.
“Well, I like it too”.
“You better”, this was the first time she removed her eyes from him.
She sat down at the table.
“So, for what purpose am I here?”
“To heal”.
Zafer leaned on the table, “what about the others?”
He now knew that Nemo was also a part of Ika’s sub-faction, Dominion.
“They are grounded and won’t be leaving the Priest's side for some time. Poor souls”.
Zafer frowned, “What about me?”.
He meant why he wasn’t grounded.
“What do you mean? I told you that you will be staying with me. That’s a blessing”, she corrected him not realizing what Zafer meant.
He was after all the one who went through the worst.
Zafer could only speculate that the Priest and someone else came to rescue them somehow, but he wasn’t sure how.
Forget the way they found out about the grinder’s location, he was shocked how any paladin could not only enter that Nubis grinder, but also return alive with 4 kidnapped men.
That was exactly the type of strength Zafer was aiming to achieve, or perhaps even higher.
It was also then that he remembered he currently had so much going on in his life, like his training, the TP to the grinder that Knuckles was supposed to paste on him, and the rune library Mint was operating at.
The rise of his name had only started, and there was no time to waste.
After witnessing what kind of strength someone as short as Laura and someone with an Iron Fist anomaly like Mio managed to achieve, he was sure that the only limit to his growth was his own lifespan.
Zafer was never a social person, but interacting with other people definitely was the best and fastest way to improve.
One’s lifespan was way too short to experiment and learn on his own. It’s better to use other people as an example and learn from their experiences to save time.
“How strong are you?”.
Ika laughed, “Weak and vulnerable. I am a girl after all”.
Well, this was a surprise. Didn’t expect that one coming from a Temper officer.
Zafer argued, “That doesn’t mean anything! Some women are extremely strong!”
“Really? Like who?”, she leaned her head on her hand.
“Like Laura”.
Ika inhaled, “Oh, her…I guess she is strong”.
It was still weird to Zafer how all of the experienced paladins and National Security members knew each other, despite their diverse attributes and abilities.
That was just how it was once someone entered the circle of infamous.
Every officer of the Temper province had to be wealthy, a good fighter, and a person capable of doing paperwork and constructing grinders and farms in order to receive said title.
Ika was an exception to that.
She was so rich that it made up for everything else that she was lacking.
However, her wealth wasn’t a gift. She worked really hard for that.
Waking up each morning at 6 to take her medicaments and cultivate flame flowers 15 hours a day.
Every day.
After a few hours of talking, Zafer asked when was it right for him to leave.
He suddenly had so much to look forward to in his life, and his path toward becoming a Temper paladin was becoming visible.
Ika replied that Zer Ox insisted on Zafer resting at her house until his scars were gone. He will also be a company for hardworking Ika during that time.
After this point, all the events that occurred were part of a short filler arc.
Ika was very smart and educated, and Zafer learned a lot of things from her during this time.
He also found out that her right eye actually leaked out when she almost went inverse but was saved.
The stopped mutation, however, still caused irreversible damage and was extremely unappealing, so she always wore an eye patch to hide it.
Ika was now the second person Zafer met who managed to resist mutating. The first one being Key Em.
Regular people, among which was Zafer not long ago, believed that to be impossible and nothing but rumors.
However, only now after becoming stronger and getting involved with powerful and influential people, Zafer realized some rumors were truthful.
He still didn’t know if resisting was possible to achieve all alone.
Ika never revealed who helped her to remain human, but there was someone.
Now one might argue that an anomaly whose strength was measuring 23 or 24 Verms was able to conduct such a feat, but that wasn’t even that important, since the number of people who possessed such high-grade anomalies was countable on fingers.
The current strongest man who was known as the symbol of peace, the only human designated Threat Level 6, Wabler, had his primary anomaly measured at 23 Verms, and it was only due to him being born with it like that.
His primary anomaly was an euclid.
The main issue with anomalies wasn’t that they were impossibly difficult to train, but that one usually didn’t have enough time.
Around the age of 50, a person's strength began to slowly decline, making it pointless to try to further enhance their anomaly.
Improvement required constant and exhausting training, both physical and mental, and the payoff wasn't nearly as great as when one was young, full of energy, with good eyesight and flexibility.
However, even if Zafer now devoted himself only and specifically to developing his Iron Fist anomaly to its maximum capacity, there was a vague chance he might succeed until he hit 50 years.
He was turning 20 this winter and Ika already turned 20 this spring.
When he found out about this, he was stunned.
This was another Temper paladin that was around 20 years old, and compared to the Nubis province, it seemed like a joke.
Nubis province consisted of highly experienced and adult men, and it wasn’t as nearly as age-diverse as Temper.
Nonetheless, this was maybe a good thing for Temper.
Maybe Banana pondered things out way before anyone else, since, as mentioned, humans were starting to lose strength once they went past 50 summers, and most of the Nubis paladins were near or even past that point.
When all of them fall out of shape, Temper will be full of young paladins at their peak age.
If this was what was happening, no… This was sure to happen, but if it was intentional, then Banana’s brain was sure to make up for his inability to fight like Uk or Simra.
One morning Zafer woke up earlier than usual in a desperate attempt to match Ika, but she was already working in the conservatory, collecting the precious sap.
At that moment someone rang the front doorbell.
The only 3 people who were visiting Ika during the entire week while Zafer was staying at her were also the other 3 remaining members of the Dominion sub-faction.
Nemo, the Priest, and the 1st officer but their visits were never this early.
Zafer opened the door but there was nobody to be seen, instead, there was a 3 by 3 crate with milk sealed in glass bottles.
He took the crate in one hand and pulled out one bottle with his other, feeling the warmth engulfing his palm.
“What’s the matter?”, Ika sneaked up behind him.
“Someone left all this milk in front of your door”.
“That’s the supplier. I’m too busy doing important stuff so I rarely go outside. You saw that note Priest took yesterday?”
It was a note containing everything she wanted to have, and once it reached the Priest or the 1st officer, they made sure she got it, no matter how small or big the quantity was.
Ika had a huge basement and a couple of pantries for the food and ingredients she used for cooking.
If the meal she wanted to prepare wasn't just for one person, she would invite others over.
“But he left yesterday pretty late”, Zafer commented.
“Yes, and the milk is from this morning. It’s warm right?”, she had a smug face.
Zafer nodded.
Ika always got what she wanted, no matter what or when.
“Take a sip and tell me if you envy me”.
Zafer smiled, placing the casket on the floor.
He knew she only wanted him to try it.
Nonetheless, the thing was that the milk was meant for Ika, and it was not only fresh but also packed in a brand-new vacuumed glass bottle.
Drinking from a glass bottle that he had never used before was a luxury that Zafer never had a chance to experience in life and he in any case didn’t know what a vacuum was.
He was trying to open the lid, but it wouldn’t flinch a bit, and the more he dragged his hand over it, the more embarrassing it was for him.
Again, he didn’t know a vacuum existed.
Ika didn’t smile but was looking at him with a normal face.
“Are your hands wet?”
Zafer took a break.
This was something one does not say to someone who possesses the Iron Fist anomaly, especially since Zafer was working really hard on improving it.
That phrase was commonly used among warriors to make fun of and humiliate each other, but someone like Ika shouldn’t know about it.
Zafer gripped the bottle once again and used more strength than a normal human without the A-6 anomaly would ever have.
His hand was holding the bottle so firmly that it was just stuck in that spot, and soon enough, the glass started to fracture.
At the point he relaxed his muscles, the bottle fell apart, causing the milk to spill on the stoney floor.
Zafer looked at Ika, not knowing what to say since he wasn’t weak, but he also knew he wasn’t so incompetent to complete such a simple task.
Ika finally smiled, “Stop looking at me like that. There is no use crying over spilled milk”.
She turned around and left the house into her garden where the conservatory was, leaving Zafer to clean all the mess she was responsible for.
She invited him to try the milk intentionally. Zafer will only realize this in a couple of years.
The two spent the rest of the week somewhat together.
Zafer could not leave her place and just wandered outside since he already was deep into the prohibited area of the Gardens of the Elite.
Nevertheless, he still made sure to perform all the sweaty exercises he used to practice together with Luch in Koth city.
The rest of the time, when he wasn’t cleaning, he helped Ika with cultivating flame flowers, not because it would be less job for her, but because he really wanted to learn how it’s properly done.
Luckily for him, there was no bigger expert than Ika, since she was spending most of her every day doing exactly this.
The goods one gets from a flame flower are the sap extracted from a mildly hardened stem and an underground storage organ made out of the weirdly evolved leaves.
Those were being used as food, an addition to the meal, or even as a spice. It was most comparable to how onions were used, except its taste was something completely unique.
This was just so deeply engraved into the culture of Pashtrik people that life without it was as hard to imagine as one where salt didn’t exist.
Its name was Ahrix.
Every flame flower plant could only have one Ahrix at a time, and once it was removed, a new one would form and be ready for extraction after a few hours.
Due to a National Security law, only the 3 official factions were allowed to cultivate and sell them at a maximum price of 77 units per Ahrix.
For comparison, a single loaf of bread costs around 20-30 units.
If plant cultivation wasn’t only limited to paladins of an officially recognized faction, its price would surely drop, but that wasn’t possible.
There was a very good reason why only paladins were allowed to cultivate not only this magic plant but also any other.
It didn’t have anything to do with Ahrix, but the sap.
The sap was the main ingredient of the ink that was used to write runes or any other type of script, including the transport point tattoos.
Writing ancient language on a piece of parchment had no meaning if it wasn’t written with the ink.
Only then did magic come to life, bringing the written code into reality.
It was so valuable and useful that scriptmen demanded to be paid with ink as well as money for a book of rune because those were the largest ink and parchment consumers.
The methods used for extracting sap from the flower plant stem were a little bit tricky, requiring unique and special tools, like long and unbelievably narrow glass pipes, but that wasn’t anything.
The extraction could take some time, and one had to know how to automate this process but still effectively get the most sap.
Knowledge about the plant was required to know where and how deep to stab the plant. The flame flower was a very bushy plant, but it still only had one flower with one pistil, resulting in one seed that would replace its precursor after the year of its life span had ended.
Ika’s farm had an astonishing amount of little over 400 plants, which was also the upper limit of how much one person could cultivate without losing any sap or Ahrix.
Just around the time she would place the needles and pipes into the last plant, the first one was also ready to have its goods collected.
After some time Zafer managed to get decent at it and until his scars faded away, he was really above average at it, understanding how the plant works and its morphology.
Had he declined to not help Skil and gone to Semi’s and Knuckles’s grinder, he realized how wrong he would have been doing things
However, now that he learned the craft, he was ready to cultivate flower plants on his own in an underground grinder.
This will consume a lot of time from his training, so before getting his TP, he decided to visit Mint’s rune library first and see what he had to offer him.
Then, he will take notes of how runes work and which ones he needs to buy first for his Miyalin axe.
As a token of appreciation for his help and a birthday gift, Ika gave him around 200k worth of bank bills which seemed like a lot, but to her, it wasn't very important.
That was after all the reason why she was the 5th officer of the Temper province.