Five days had passed since Emily’s death. During this time, the village had been a hive of activity, with adventurers and guild masters arriving to inspect the corpse of the calamity-class monster. While that was going on, Kai was still grieving. “I shouldn’t be like this.”, he knew he had to move on. He was in his room, in the chief’s house. “Alright.” the first thing he decided to do was cut his hair. He didn’t want to at first, since he thought maybe things should be just how they are, but the hair cut didn’t match his style. He thought, “A change might help me distract myself…”
He wheeled himself straight out of his room, to where the chief was. The chief was sitting in his chair, when Kai came and wrote to him, “Can you lend me a scissor?” The village chief hesitated to give him the scissors, “Should I give him?”, he thought so, fearing he might harm himself. Kai sighed and assured him, giving him a note, “Stay with me, and you’ll see I’m alright.” The chief agreed to it, “Alright then…”.
“Emily… I did as you told me to. I gave the letter to Kai. And also sent the letter you wanted me to.” Back in time, around the second day after Emily’s death, the chief mailed another letter that Emily had left behind, “Please, mail this letter if something were to happen to me. But don’t look at where the letter is addressed to.” The chief recalls of Emily handing him the letter.
“I did as you asked me to, but I’m worried about Kai…”, worried so, he sat beside him. As Kai began to cut his hair, the chief watched carefully. “Something is different about him.”, he thought to himself. After a while, his eyes widened in surprise. The shabby-looking Kai was gone, replaced by a noble-like figure. Kai looked at his reflection and thought, “This is alright, I guess.”
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He turned to the chief, who was still stunned. Waving his hand in front of the chief’s face, he brought him back to reality. The chief managed to say, “You look so handsome now…” He smiles, chuckles a little, “Emily would have been so happy to see you like this.”
Kai smiles a little hearing so, as he falls deep into his thoughts, recalling Emily’s words, “Why don’t you let me cut your hairs? You would look so handsome!” To which, Kai would just shake his head. He had always refused, “I didn’t want unwanted attention.” He laughs as he recalls the event, “But now, I wished I had listened to her.”
As he and the chief were inside the room, he heard something from outside. A commotion outside the house interrupted his thoughts. “What’s all that noise?” the chief wondered, heading towards the door. “You stay here, Kai,” he said before leaving.
Alone, Kai took out a pendant Emily had given him.
“Take this…”, she placed it on Kai’s hand. “It will help you… in the future…” she had said, her last smile still etched in his memory. The pendant had a red core, encased in silver. He took it in his hands and wore it, “I will just wear it for now.”
Just then, the door slammed open. Startled, Kai looked up to see what happened. But he couldn’t see who they were, who suddenly hugged him. He didn’t know what to do, they were crying. “We finally found you…” they sobbed, hugging him tightly. Kai didn’t know what to do, but just to sit and wait.