"I was looking for you, didn't expect to see you here."
"I just need some fresh air."
"It's not like you to drink alcohol this late."
"Still, you still need to wake up early tomorrow brother."
"C'mon Esta, a few drinks won't hurt."
Esta shrugged as she walked towards his brother. She sat beside him behind a big tree. Silence ensued, as the two sat together. There are few stars in the sky and the air is chilly. It's currently spring and a lot of the plants around the area just bloomed. It was apparent with the grass around the area. Beside her is her brother with a bottle of beer. The faint smell of alcohol lingered in the air.
"So tell me brother, what's bothering you?"
"Aurae, her element manifested a while back. I-I was...I was afraid that something might happen. Afraid that things would go wrong." Tobias said as he drank some beer.
"S-she didn't awaken anything related to that right?" Esta said as she covered her mouth, afraid that someone might hear her.
"No, it was a plant element. Thank the elements it was." he said as his grip on the bottle became tighter.
I was hoping that this day would come, even if it was impossible. I was hoping that the kid won't suffer anymore, she was just a kid. Though I know that this was inevitable, I could not do anything. He thought as he chugged the last drop of beer.
"I wasn't even recovered yet, I am just an Advance Knight right now. I can't protect the two of you." he said as he pulled his hair with his two hands and buried his face in his knees.
"I am already a Master Archer brother, I'm not lthe little girl you need to protect. I can share your burdens now. For now, we can only try our best to protect her. I know and believe that you will recover and reach Grandmaster again." she said as she rubbed the back of his brother. She understands his frustration, she saw how hard it was for him for the past four years and how the little girl brought light to their lives.
"We can only do our best, before the time comes. We can only try to do our best to protect her."
...
"Halt! Apologies sir but we need to take a moment to inspect the carriage and goods before you can enter the city. This is standard procedure, I hope you do not take offense" aone of the two guards standing from the gate said to the caravan of a merchant.
"No worries. Please go ahead and check the goods." a slightly chubby man in his fortys said to the guards.
The remaining guardwent towards the carriages and then fished out a stone from his space bag. It was a multi-colored, each color represents an element. He injected some elemental energy into the stone making it glow in different colors. The light enveloped one of the carriages. The stone is called a detection stone. It detects large amounts of concentrated elemental energy that only dangerous objects contain such as elemental bombs. Once it detects a large amount of elemental energy, the light transforms into a streak and points towards the direction of the object. It might not be foolproof but it deters some dangerous objects from entering the city.
The only way for a dangerous object to enter the city is throug a permit. This permits is only issued by certain people such as the city mayor and people of Master rank and above. The latter is required to take responsibility for the dangerous object. In this way, anything danger brought by the said object can be mitigated in some way. After a while, the light enveloping the carriage dissipated. The guard then proceeded to scan the remaining carriage.
"Father when are we going to enter the city? I'm tired and ver hungry." a young boy around the age of five said as he tugged the clothes of the merchant.
"We'll enter soon Julius, just wait for a while." the merchant said.This caused the young boy to grumble.
Helios Noir is a merchant from Marem City, a city located at the southeast of the Royal City. It is also known as sea city as t=it was located near the ocean. He is here at Greisa to sell goods from his hometown and buy goods from Greisa to sell back to his hometown. As Greisa is located at a mountainous region, there is a huge demand for goods that are abundant in his hometown such as fish. His hometown however, is in demand for goods from Greisa such as ores.
He took almost three days to arrive at the city using the roads. A shortcut using the forests might be faster but the risk of encountering magical beasts is huge. His journey is particularly arduous because he is on guard against bandits that may come and steal his goods. Inside the carriage are live crabs and lobsters as well as containers with formations made by water mages to preserve shellfish and fish. The formation creates a cold environment to preserve the goods.
It might have been easier for him to transport goods by putting everything on a space bag but space element magical beasts are rare so their leather is very expensive. Adding the fact that space bags has limited space in it so he would need a lot of space bag for his goods. The only goods he kept in his space bag are the high quality pearls he is going to sell in the auction house. As pearls are rare in this city, it would fetch a good price.
"All your goods are fine sir, you just need to present an identification card and you can enter the city."
Helios presented his identification card. Each person could only own one of such card. It was soulbound to the owner and so it cannot be faked. The guard took the card and and placed it in front of a stone. A faint light shone from it indicating it was authentic. The other people from the caravan also presented their identification cards. Once ecverything is done, they entered the city.
"You all should go first and deliver the items." Helios instructed his servants. He and his son with a few guards then proceeded to walk towards the tavern.
...
It was a busy day for Aurae. There was a lot of customers this afternoon and she helped his fathe and Uncle Flint in serving them. Once the customers left, they ate their lunch inside in the kitchen. After finishing her meal, she went out of the kitchen. As she exited, she saw a group of five people entered the tavern. They chose a table and sat down. She felt someone behind her exited the kitchen and went towards them.
"I want to eat roasted chicken and drink caramel milk " Julius said as they sat down. This cause his father's forehead to furrow. He did not expect his son to start acting up today.
"We'll order what is available Julius." Helios said slightly annoyed which caused the young boy to sulk.
"Good afternoon sir, may I take your order?" Flint said as he together with Aurae arrived at the table.
"What are the available dishes for today?" Helios replied.
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"For todays menu we have grilled fish, roasted boar meat, stir fried mushrooms, and vegetable soup. We also have wheat bread. For desserts, we have apple pie and sweet bread filled with strawberry fillings. For the special dish, we have smoked meat in mint leaves of magical beast, aqua dear." Aurae said slowly. After she finished talking, she looked up to Flint. He patted her head and gave her a thumbs up.
I wish my boy was this sensible as this young dryad. Helios thought as he looked at the young girl. Despite the fact that this is the human continent, there is still a large number of other races residing here. Mixed-race children is not rare, so although he was slightly shocked to see a young dryad, it didn't bother him at all.
"We'll take tw-
"I want to eat roasted chicken!" Julius shouted as he stood from his seat and walked away.
"Julius, come back here!"
"Do I need to follow him, sir?" one of the guards asked.
"No, let him be. He'll probably stay at the carriage. I'll just buy him food. Let's eat, we still have a long day."
"I'll order 2 servings of grlled fish, 3 servings of roasted boar meat, 2 servings of stir-fried mushrooms, and 5 wheat bread. I'll also would like to buy 3 pieces of sweet bread, do you pack food here?"
"Yes we do pack food here. As for drinks sir?"
"We'll just have some water."
"Okay sir, so a serving of grilled fish is 8 coppers, so that would be 16 coppers. A serving of roasted boar meat would be 11 coppers, that would be 33 coppers. A serving of stir-fried mushroom would be 10 coppers, so that would be 20 coppers. One piece of wheat bread is 2 coppers, so that would be 10 coppers. And a piece of sweet bread is 4 coppers, so that would be 12 coppers. And water is free. That's for a total of 91 coppers." Flint said.
"Here's the payment." Helios said as he fished out his money card, one 50 copper coin, four 10 copper coins, and one 1 copper coin came out from the card. He then gave it to Flint.
"Your order would be here after a few minutes."
...
As Flint was taking the orders of the group, Aurae sneakily went out of the taver to follow the young boy. She saw him leaning at the carriage parked at the side of the road in front of the tavern. She decided to approach him.
"Hello, why did you ran?" she asked as she stood in front of the boy.
"E-eh, you shocked me. I-I want roasted chicken, you don't have roasted chicken." Julius said.
"But we have roasted boar meat, my aunt's food is good too."
"It's not the same thing!"
~stomach rumbles~
" ~giggles~ See? You're hungry. You should gp back and eat with your father." Aurae said as she looked at the boy whose milky white cheeks turned red from embarassment.
"I-I don't want to, I'm n-not hungry."
"I know what to do, let's go." Aurae giggled at him, she took his hand and drag him behind the tavern.
"W-wait, where are we going?!"
...
"~huffs~ Y-you, w-where are we?"
"Just stay here I'll be back." Aurae said as she ran towards th back door of the tavern that leads to the kitchen.
"W-wait, what am I going to do here?" Julius said as he stomped his feet but Aurae was already gone. After a few minutes, Aurae came back with a two pieces of sweet bread in her hands.
"Here, we can eat this. This was my snak but I will give it to you." she said as she gave one of the bread to Julius.
"I-I'm not hungry."
Aurae just looked at him as he turn redder and redder followed by a soft rumbling sound coming from his stomach.]
"You know, we can sit under the tree. My father always sits there because it's cold." Aurae said as she placed the bread she held into Julius' hand and used the free hand to slightly pull him towards the tree. With no other choice, he sat down with her under the tree.
"Why did you ran? It's not the roasted chicken, right?"
"...yeah, it's not because you don't have roasted chicken." Julius said as his head drooped.
"I really don't want to come here. Father only talks about business. I don't want that. I want to be a knight and slaye the demon king." Julius said as he decided to bite the bread. The sweet strawberry fillng filled his mouth.
"But that was wrong, you should not shout and leave your father like that."
"I know, but I thought if I act bad father would send me home." he replied as his voice became softer.
"The bread is delicous right?" Aurae said as she noticed he ate half of it already.
"Y-yeah, it's good."
"The other food my aunt cook is also good so you should come back inside and eat it."
"Do you think my father would be mad?" he asked as he finished the bread.
"If you say sorry he won't be mad for a very long time. When Father get's mad at me, I just say sorry then hewould pat my head. Then he isn't mad anymore." Aurae said as he stood up and patted the head of Julius.
"H-hey, don't ruin my hair." Julius said as he tried to fix his hair.
"~giggle~ Okay I will stop. But you have to go back now, my aunt is done cookin now so they are eating without you."
"O-okay I will come back inside, t-thanks for the bread."
"You're welcome."
...
Aurae went inside the tavern together with Julius. The boy walked towards his father and apologized while Aurae went inside the kitchen.
"Where did you go little princess?" Tobias said as the little girl walked inside.
"Father, how do you know if someone is your friend?" she asked as she was picked up by Tobias and placed on his lap.
"A friend huh, well first you should know their name."
Aurae was suddenly dumbstruck. She did not asked for the name of the kid she was talking to.
"Why did you ask? Did you make some friends?" Tobias asked as he pinched her nose slightly.
"I didn't ask what's his name." Aurae said as she pouted.
Did she talk to the kid that ran off a while ago? A boy...they re kids Tobias what are you even thinking.
"Well you can ask for his name, then you can be friends." Tobias said as he placed her down.
Aurae then ran outside the kitchen towards the dining are. She looked at the table of the young boy buit sadly they already left. Her head drooped and her mood turned blue. Tobias followed her and once he saw her sad, he patted her head.
"Maybe you'll see him again. "
"Father, I also want to have friends like you. Uncle Flint is your friend right?"
Tobias was taken aback. He forgot that his daughter is a young kid and having friends at this young age is very important. The fear and desire to protect her cause him to neglect a few things. A kid needs to be a kid, adults should hand the problems and let a kid become a kid.
"Of course you'll have friends."
...
A carriage that was traversing the roads of Greisa City. Inside the carriage is Julius and his father. It was already dusk. The sun already set and the streets are already getting darker however Julius is looking out of the window. He seems to be anticipating something as he watched the buildings that their carriage ran past by.
"Don't worry my boy, we're going to arrive at that tavern. Just sit down." Helios said as he looked at his son.
"Father, are you sure she'll like the candy we bought?"
"Of course, didn't you say she gave you sweet bread? And that it was her snack? IF she does not like sweets, she would have brought wheat bread for you." Helios said, laughing at his stubborn son.
"Okay, but if she doesn't like it, y-you'll buy me roasted chicken." Julius said as his cheeks redden.
"And if I am right, you should learn swordmanship properly."
This cause the eyes of Julius to widen. He frantically nodded his head. This caused his father to laugh again. He knows that his son doesn't want to go with him on this journey but he wants him to learn about the family business. However, he was not oblivious to the fact that his son is very passionate about being a knight. Who says you can't be both a knight and a merchant?
After a while the carriage finally arrived at the tavern. There are a lot of activities inside. Julius immediately got off the carriage and walked towards the tavern. He was thinking whether to go inside or go back to the tree, finally he decided to go to the tree as he felt like he could not squeeze through the loads of people inside. Once he arrived at the tree, he saw a young dryad sitting under it, holding a plant.
"H-hey." he called out.
"E-eh, why are you here? Did you ran off again?"
"N-no, of course not. I just want to give you something. Here, I don't know i-if you like c-candies but father said you might like it." Julius said as he put a small bag of candies on Aurae's plant as she was holding the pot of the Twilight Flower.
"I a-actually like candies a lot."
"T-that's good. Father said if you like it I could train and become a knight."
"Then that's good right?" Aurae said as she smiled. Her big adorable eyes cause Julius to be taken aback.
"Y-yeah, so when I visit here again I'm going to be a knight and then I'll slay the demon king."
"Okay, I will wait for you. My name is Aurae, what is yours?"
"I'm Julius."
"Okay Julius, now we're friends right? Father said we can become friends if we know each other's names." she said.
"Y-yeah, we're friends now."
...
Aurae watched as the carriage started to leave towards the city gates. Julius' head popped out of the window of the carriage as he waved his hand towards his new friend. This was received by Aurae by waving her hand too. As the carriage pulled away from Aurae, she ran and continued to wave her hands until she could not see the carriage anymore. Today is a very fun day for her as she just made a friend, her first friend.