It was almost night-time in the town of Unasu. The stones inside the poles started to shine brightly one by one on their own, lighting the walkways. Most shops were beginning to close, except for taverns. The air near these taverns was filled with the smell of beer and spices and the constant blabbering of drunk folk and merry folk alike.

From one of these taverns, a boy ran out with an older girl following him to the door.

“Remember! The meat and the letter!” shouted the girl to the boy who ran out.

“Sure! I’ll get it done quickly!”

The streets of Unasu were busy, even after the sun had set, the reason being that a festival was soon approaching. It was the festival which celebrated the town’s founding by a renowned ancient mage, after whom it was named. All the more reason for the boy named Lucian to finish these errands as soon as possible.

The sooner I start, the sooner I’ll finish, thought Lucian.

The first visit was to a stall that sold meat. The tavern Lucian called home had more customers for a few days straight due to the founder’s festival, and Lucian’s family had to prepare accordingly for the barrage of orders that would soon come.

Lucian had arrived at the butcher’s place, where his family often bought meat from.

“Well, if it ain’t Tom’s son. What can I get ya, lad?” said the butcher, still chopping slabs of meat from the body of the pig on his table. The corpses of pigs, roosters, and goats were sprawled across tables behind the butcher.

“Two times the usual order, please.”

“Business is booming, eh? I’ll deliver it to your place by tonight since I am pretty packed with orders now. Speaking of order, I heard your sister wanted to join the knights. Did your parents not kick up a fuss or anything?”

“Nah, Dad convinced Mom, so she doesn’t nag them anymore. Marian gets training from Dad, so she’s gonna get in easily.”

“Is that so? Thought your father wouldn’t let her join such a dangerous job. Good to hear, anyways.”

Lucian understood what he meant. Lucian’s father had left his home a long time ago to make a living as a guardsman of the Kingdom, with his mother Isabel following him. After an injury made him unfit for duty and seeing how his life could be cut short in an instant in a fight, Tom had retired after two decades of service to the kingdom and decided to help his wife, Cassia, run the tavern together, as nothing was more important to him than living to see his family grow old. These sets of events were told as bedtime stories to Lucian and his sister many times.

It would make sense Dad wouldn’t let Marian apply for the knights since he kept saying it was dangerous. But he changed his mind after a few days and is now training her. I wonder why… No matter. I’ve got other things to do, so I should go.

Lucian waved the butcher goodbye and went on his way to the Guild hall. As he entered through the door, he could see people dressed in varieties of armour. Some wore plates, some leather. Most of them had gruff appearances, but none looked menacing.

“Welcome to the Eithar Guild. How may I help you?” said the receptionist standing at the desk.

“I would like to put up a request to have someone deliver a letter to Karia village.”

“Please hold on for a minute.”

The receptionist shuffles through some papers and reads carefully for a bit.

“We have a group of adventurers going to that region on a quest. So we can deliver it through their hands. Would that be okay with you?”

“Yes, that’s okay.”

“That would be three coppers.”

Lucian ran his hands through his pockets and took out exactly three coins of copper, and deposited it on the tray that sat on the receptionist’s desk.

“Thank you. That will be all.”

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Having done his errands, Lucian started to make his way home. But, as soon as he touched the door, the feeling of dread came up to him. His heart felt as if it was being tugged at constantly, and breathing became more burdensome by the minute.

Wh-what? What’s happening? I can’t breathe…

“Oi kid. You okay? You don’t look too good.”

Lucian couldn’t hear what was being said to him. He felt fearful; his body was unreasonably itchy, with cold sweat all over. It became harder to focus.

Feeling that something was horribly wrong, he ran as fast as he could to his home. As he was running, he bumped into a few people whose yells could be heard behind him, telling him to watch where he was going, but he didn’t stop. He continued to run until he reached his home.

Lucian had reached his destination after what felt like hours of running and flung the door open. As soon as he opened the door, Lucian collapsed. The sudden thud on the floor surprised Marian.

“Mom, Dad! Lucian’s fainted!” shouted Marian. Anxiety filled Marian, as she had just seen Lucian, fit as a fiddle, before going to do the errands she asked of him, and now he was on the ground unconscious. She hurriedly took Lucian to his room while their parents followed suit after seeing the sight.

After placing Lucian on his bed, the whole family gathered around him with worry.

“What happened!?”

“I don’t know. I was preparing the tables when suddenly Lucian barged in, sweating all over, and then dropped.”

The mother, Cassia, touched Lucian’s forehead and checked his temperature.

“He has a fever. We should take him to the doctor’s clinic.”

“All of them are closed at this time. They’ll take an absurd amount of money if we go now. We’ll go tomorrow.”

Marian took care of Lucian that night, and Tom went to the doctor the next day. After checking Lucian’s health, the doctor prescribed a medicinal potion.

“It should be cured in three days.” Said the doctor as he was writing down the dosage amounts along with the way to consume it.

But two weeks had passed by without any good results.

“I’m afraid I don’t know what ails the child.”

“Please, doctor, his fever has gotten way worse since last time. There must be some way. We’ll do anything.” Said Tom, troubled.

“I don’t have anything to treat the boy with the money you have, no offence. Best you can do now is to hope it solves itself.”

Tom dejectedly went out of the clinic, frustrated at his uselessness about the situation. As he was walking down the street thinking about the ways Lucian could be cured, a child bumped into him full force. Not overthinking it, Tom told the child to be careful and, after the child apologised and ran again to a crowd, he saw the reason why the child was in such a hurry. Tom saw that a carriage had fallen over, tilted to the side as if it was in the middle of a fall. He also saw why the carriage didn’t touch the ground; a woman with red hair was holding said tilted carriage with one hand, and in her arms was a lady, her arms around the red-hair woman, her eyes shut tight with a fearful expression. The woman holding the carriage set aside the carriage with haste and then ushered the lady to get in the carriage.

“What happened here?” asked Tom to the people gathered around.

“Something hit that carriage at breakneck speed while it was stopped.”

Tom saw that the carriage was not some simple carriage but a well-designed and expensive carriage. Like the ones nobles and wealthy merchants use.

There are a few reasons why someone would attack a carriage that’s that expensive looking, in the middle of the day, in a town.

As soon as the red-haired woman was done helping, two men draped with dark leather armour appeared and attacked her. The attacks did little to phase the red-haired woman, as the strikes of the attackers were repelled by strange circles surrounding the red-haired woman’s hand mid-air.

It’s a mage, Tom thought.

After a while, one of them backed off while the other suddenly started to speed up his attacks all of a sudden. Then, suddenly, the other attacker that backed off, threw what looked like a dagger at the red-haired woman. While at first, it looked futile throwing a dagger at a mage, the dagger suddenly exploded with purple mist surrounding the red-haired woman. The red-haired woman inhaled some of the mist and began coughing violently. She started to look weakened after inhaling the purple mist, and it looked like the first attacker, who kept the red-haired woman busy, was getting the upper hand.

Tom thought about helping but decided not to, as the squabbles of nobles are life-threateningly dangerous to a commoner. Yet as soon as he was about to leave, he thought of something. During his days as a guardsman, he often encountered mages who dealt with monsters and diseases that most of the public didn’t know about. If he helped the mage, he might be able to ask for her help.

Is it worth it to risk getting into whatever conflict a nobleman has?

Thinking that one favour would help tremendously in helping his son, Tom rushed the second attacker. The second attacker noticed someone was coming at him at the last second and dodged rather clumsily to avoid the strike. As a result, he had a terrible foothold, which Tom exploited in his favour. He grabbed the man’s collar and slammed him to the ground, followed by an elbow strike to the nose.

That should knock him out.

He hit the downed man again at the same spot.

Just to make sure.

He then turned his head to the attacker engaged with the red-haired woman. But saw that the matter was dealt with, as the man was on the ground, his arm crushed unnaturally. As he was reeling from the pain, the red-haired stomped his head a few times until he stopped moving. She then saw Tom and the other attacker on the ground. Seeing as there was no danger at the moment, she went to the lady that went into the carriage for safety, confirming her safety. She then approached Tom with a smile on her face.

“Greetings. I am Cecilia. Thank you for dealing with the other assassin. Since you helped me a great deal, I will offer you a reward. Please come by the Howenward’s estate this evening and say you came at my behest.”