The cold, freezing wind of winter’s night rushed onto Elmer’s mildly protected body as he pulled open the front door from within. And with that action appeared a lady on his porch, the sight of her making his eyes twitch and his brows cave in.

She looked quite young and seemed to be at least of a similar age as he—if not older. They were almost of the same average height as well, which was only deterred by him having an inch above her.

Her skin was of an amber tone, and her hair, which was somewhat tousled—along with her bangs—was packed into a bun.

On her round face nestled a bright winsome smile, which made her doe eyes of sienna brown a tad too bewitching under the flicker of the porch’s oil lamps.

Making up her light attire was a lace short-sleeve shirt tucked into a plain shin-length satin skirt, and short socks that only went a bit over her ankles.

But although a person he’d never seen before was standing before his front door, Elmer had the majority of his attention drawn to what she was holding.

With his right foot behind his left, he remained on the defensive, tightening his right fist, which was cloaked by the essence color of red, behind his door.

“What is in your hands?” he asked at once, in a bit too unfriendly manner.

Good evening. Who are you? What do you want? Any of those were what should have surfaced in the place of that which he had put forth. But Elmer was only a gentleman when his tenses were not heightened and when he wasn’t curious; and those two things were what he was at the moment—at a peak level.

The young lady’s smile swept away, turning her expression oblivious due to the question she had been asked. But after a quick glance at the swollen tray wrapped by tinfoil she was holding, her smile returned.

“Oh! Pardon me,” she apologized. “This is a gift. It’s pineapple pie.”

Pineapple pie…? — Pie…? Elmer’s face squeezed as he could not seem to understand what was going on.

The young lady took note of his reaction, and quickly added, “Not much, I know. But I just moved into the one-storey house next door with my parents, and we only had this enough pie for pleasantries.” She made a gesture indicating smallness with the fingers of her left hand, the whiteness of her teeth not leaving Elmer’s gaze. “Oops!” A laugh left her glossy lips as her attempt of holding the tray of pie with one hand almost resulted in an accident. She immediately discarded her gesture with her other hand at that. “Pardon, once more,” she said with a chuckle, stabilizing herself.

Through all that Elmer had watched her with a hawk-like gaze, scanning every bit of her body and self in caution. But as her doe eyes returned back to him with nothing short of warmth, he sighed indistinctly, finally realizing that she was most likely of no harm.

There was nothing about her that presented hostility; at least he could feel nothing. And, presently, he was even too weak to keep the spiritual essence around his fist going. He had to deactivate it now or he might faint.

If only that could help me sleep past an hour, I would have been exhausting my spirituality every time so I can have a good rest for once…

Instinctively, as a sign of his defensive nature being subdued, his right foot slid forward and his body turned fully to the door. He canceled the spiritual essence of red on his right hand and gripped the doorknob.

“Thank you for the hospitality…” Elmer faked a smile as he took a break in between his talk. “But I don’t think I can accept that.”

The lightly dressed lady tipped her head to the side with her eyes widened and her smile went lost. “You can’t accept it?”

Elmer nodded. “I really don’t mean to be rude, but I just finished having my dinner and I highly doubt that my stomach can take any more.”

“Oh. Well, you could have it with your family,” she offered an idea. “After all, it’s plenty enough.”

“We all just had dinner. Not only me,” Elmer countered strongly.

Tightening her lips in defeat, the young lady looked down at the tinfoil covered pineapple pie she’d brought and silently chuckled awkwardly, seemingly in deep thought.

Seems she doesn’t like her gifts being rejected… I’m sorry, but I don’t think I can have anything from a stranger—especially not now…

“I see. Thank you for your time,” she said a moment later, giving the impression that she was going to be taking her leave. But she went on shortly after, “You don’t seem much older than I, so I hope we can become good friends later on. I’m eighteen, you?”

Elmer faked a smile once again, this time at her question, then shook his head.

He could allow her to keep talking because he felt bad for rejecting her hospitality, but there was information about himself he wouldn’t give out to a complete stranger.

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Honestly, she really shouldn’t even be this close to him.

“I see,” the young lady said morosely, apparently understanding the message Elmer was passing across with his distant reactions. “Well, I do hope we can become friends down the line. We’re neighbors after all, and it would be nice and all since I just moved here. You know, navigating the city would be a lot of fun with someone to talk to.”

Yes, it would… But I’m not your man, sadly…

Although, despite those thoughts, Elmer decided to engage her a bit. The least he could do was not come off as discourteous to a new person in the city.

“From which city, if I may ask of course?” he asked after a smack of his lips, and those questions caused the winsome smile the young lady before him had had to return, though in a less bewitching form.

“Esmer,” she answered with a soft shrug.

The city of love… Elmer’s eyebrows went up.

He’d never met anyone from that city during all his time at Meadbray, but he had an instinctual feeling that the place would be as peaceful as cities came.

The city of the goddess of love? Surely it had to be.

“By the way,” the young lady with sienna brown eyes drew Elmer away from his thoughts and brought him back to her. “I should have done this sooner. I’m Rachel Swole. It’s a pleasure getting to know you.”

Elmer smiled. “Floyd. Floyd Edgar,” he presented himself. “The pleasure’s all mine.”

Rachel Swole bobbed her head slightly.

“Hmm… Well, I guess I’ll get going then.”

“Maybe you could try another house?” Elmer gestured with his chin toward the other buildings in the area. “Anyone else would be pleased to receive the pie. I’m the weird one, I won’t lie.”

Rachel turned around, glimpsed the houses that made up High street, then turned back to Elmer and shook her head.

“It’s not done that way; at least in Esmer where I’m from. Pleasantries are only offered to direct neighbors. If there’s a house to your left, you go to that. If there’s one to your right, you go to that. And if there’s a house on both sides, you go to them. My father is visiting the one to our right,” Rachel explained, and Elmer listened attentively. He always welcomed information that did not come from having to scour through the bulky books of history.

“I see…” Elmer nodded. “That’s quite the culture.”

“I agree,” Rachel said. “It’s a way the Church of Love incites us to spread love. They know if a single house is to share for every house in their neighborhood, then that would be draining. There’s also occasional tea parties that houses are encouraged to organize. It helps with building connections, and the Church always helps with loans if needed. My father is hoping to host one soon, I hope you can come—with your family of course.”

Elmer let his eyes wander for a moment, then with downturned lips he replied, “We shall see.”

Rachel tilted her head to the side as she adjusted her posture, the latter done seemingly because of prolonged discomfort due to her standing.

“Why do I get the feeling that such doesn’t happen here?” she asked, curiousness and growing disappointment mingling about on her face.

Because it doesn’t… I’m sure the middle class and higher partake in such, or something similar, but expecting the working class and lower to try such is basically telling them to give up their last meals to their neighbors…

This City of Love sounds like too good of a place to be true, but I can seem to understand how it came to be that way… Rules regarding a specific cost of living might have been enacted for its citizens; if you are not making a specific sum of money, you cannot be a citizen of Esmer, something like that… That would explain why every other city was not completely empty… Well, there was also people considering the cost of relocating and settling down in a new place, starting from scratch and all that… Yes… I can see that…

But what I can’t see is if that place is so good, then why did you move—

A thought suddenly flashed through Elmer’s mind, and he immediately activated his spiritual eyesight, directing it at the possibility of Rachel having a crest representing a pathway. But he saw none of the illusory green swirling about in a circle which characterized an Ascender.

His abruptly stiffened shoulders relaxed at that, and immediately his mind brought forth words that condemned his stupidity for him not checking the possibility of Rachel being an Ascender before now.

He would blame his weakened state of mind, but that would mean he was trying to avoid taking responsibility for his own slip up. And he would not have that.

Thankfully, his intuition at the start was right. She was just a normal person.

But then why had she and her family moved from such a nice city to a place like Ur where crimes ran rampant, and people died of starvation? Was it someone else in her family that was an Ascender? That was plausible, but alas, it was none of his concern. As long as it did not affect his own life directly or indirectly, he wanted no relation whatsoever with it.

“You spaced out,” Rachel Swole dragged Elmer back to her. “That was a lot of thinking. Did I leave a bad impression or something?”

Elmer chuckled weirdly, the swollen under lids of his eyes made nearly invisible by the darkness of night.

“Don’t mind me. I do that a lot,” he said, his spiritual eyesight long deactivated. “I’m sorry, but I want to have a rest now. I’m really tired.”

Rachel’s eyebrows jumped up. “Ah, forgive me. I’m truly sorry. I’ll take my leave now. Have a good night.”

She bowed and hastened away from Elmer’s view, but before she could fully climb down the front yard’s steps, he called to her.

“Miss Swole,” he’d said, halting her steps. “Forgive my intrusion, but I noticed your clothes to be quite light. It’s just an observation, but I advise thick clothes; they would help keep you from falling sick. The weather here isn’t the most favorable.”

“Ah…” Rachel chuckled, not taking his words offensively. “Do not worry about me. The weather here is as favorable as they come compared to Esmer.” Elmer’s head jerked back at those words. “And, could we use first names please, if you don’t mind. It helps set the stage for us becoming friends in the future.” She smiled and disappeared into the growing darkness of night, leaving Elmer, who was still at his front door, staring blankly.

She couldn’t have meant that… This weather is more favorable than the one at Esmer…?! What…? Are they dining with blizzards and snowstorms there…?!