Chapter Nine
I Am the Spark, You Are the Flame
In a luxurious room illuminated by Firefly Crystal Shards, the young lady Doska slept peacefully.
Beside her sat three figures whose appearances and auras suggested they held significant backgrounds.
One of them was named Daki, a woman in her thirties wearing clothes that covered most of her body, revealing a small portion of her chest, which was the most prominent feature of her figure, or rather the only thing she took pride in.
The second was named Shindo, a dark-skinned first path mage girl who, like Doska, had been adopted by the Anira family years ago. She was also Doska’s combat sister, being only a year older.
The third was named Draka, a member of the Anira lineage chosen to be Doska’s future husband once they both came of age. He was originally the one who had pleaded with Daki, his mother, to allow Doska into the family.
“How did this happen? My dear Doska lost her long, silky, smooth hair; I loved combing it so much,” Daki said sadly.
“Are we going to wait for the report? How can I stay silent about this crime committed against my sister!” Shindo shouted in distress.
“Your sister? And what do I say?! She is my wife-to-be, and here I am, seeing her beautiful hair burnt off as if she were a prisoner! Insulting my future wife is an insult to me!” Draka roared angrily.
Although the only injury was burned hair and the solution was simply to cut it, the three of them were determined not to let it pass quietly.
Daki, being the mother of all three, took Doska’s insult personally; it could undermine her position in the family and thus in the clan if she remained silent.
As for Shindo, she was upset because her only friend had been insulted.
Those with dark skin were rare in the Central Grassland Continent and were considered a rare commodity. Without Doska’s intervention, she would have become a rare concubine at best.
Draka, on the other hand, was blinded by youthful love. Despite this seemingly trivial emotion being the reason for rescuing Doska and Shindo, he had sworn as a man to protect her. Now, his oath seemed like a joke as he gazed with a heart full of rage at his beloved. In a moment of resolve, he stood up quietly.
“Wait for the report; you can’t do anything right now,” Daki commanded sternly for the first time in their conversation.
“I want to vent my anger. Give me the Hay Clone Shard,” Draka said without turning his face while his mother handed him the shard. The shard resembled a voodoo doll made of beautiful yellow straw. He carried it silently and left the room.
The Anira family’s palace was built within mountain caves, which had been skillfully renovated to resemble a paradise, with lanterns hanging everywhere and breathtaking views of the grassy lands.
Draka walked calmly until he reached a circular arena the size of a football field, where most of the family’s students trained.
The arena was carved from gray stone that had been hewn from the mountain, surrounded by hundreds of tall bamboo spears casting their shadows on the ground under the crescent moon’s light.
Draka gazed at the dark, cloud-covered horizon and inhaled the mountain air. With a determined expression, he held his shard and sighed.
“Hay Clone Shard," Draka commanded as he infused his mana into the doll and threw it. Within a few breaths, the doll expanded as if it were a balloon.
As Draka channeled more mana, the doll grew larger until it matched his size, resembling a scarecrow with a human shape and wooden bones.
He continued to infuse mana until the doll looked exactly like him; if a bystander saw them, they would be unable to tell them apart.
“Attack me!” Draka ordered the doll angrily. When activated, the Hay Clone Shard granted the doll additional strength, and it could be commanded to attack anyone.
In cases where a mage wanted to kill themselves to prevent information leakage to the enemy, they could order the doll to attack them.
However, while shards had their advantages, they also had drawbacks. The doll was unarmed and only attacked physically. Additionally, its wooden and straw composition made it weak against fire. Even Sero could defeat the doll in minutes.
But something set the doll apart from humans: it had greater freedom of movement.
Draka's eyes were focused on the doll, which moved comically, but he was no fool; he had fought it several times before.
The doll lunged fiercely while its upper part flailed backward, swaying with unexpected agility.
With a swift move, Draka kicked the doll in the waist, but its upper part lunged forward, and its straw arm struck his face with force, sending both of them backward.
“Not bad,” Draka muttered calmly and charged, grabbing the doll’s arm. However, his hand was filled with straw needles as the doll kicked his leg and brought him to his knee. With a strike from its left arm, Draka threw it away, returning the fight to its previous state.
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As the battle continued, Draka endured numerous blows, from strikes to vulnerable areas to throwing the doll into the air.
Each hit tore at the straw, but it wasn’t enough to stop the doll. On the other hand, the doll kept attacking, using its agility and lack of need for breathing or feeling pain to its advantage.
In a moment of focus, Draka tried to target the wooden joints. With a powerful kick, he broke the rod acting as the spine, causing the doll to bend backward.
But that was nothing. The doll didn’t move due to nerves and didn’t adhere to human body rules. Instead, its upper and lower parts began moving independently, delivering kicks and punches simultaneously, and flipping in opposite directions, as if Draka were fighting a drunken martial art master.
“Trying to defeat a non-human entity with human methods? Did you disregard my advice?” A feminine voice pierced Draka’s ear. He recognized the speaker immediately; it was Doska.
But in a moment of distraction, the doll delivered a blow to his stomach, followed by a kick that sent him two meters to the ground.
“I took a short nap only to find my future husband being bullied by a hay doll. How does it feel to know your future wife is stronger than you?” The voice grew sharper, but contrary to her usual tone, it was somewhat gentle.
“Are you okay? How is your injury?!” Draka asked with concern as he tried to stand up.
“Injury? It’s just burnt hair! I cut it, and now it’s only the length of my neck. I’m still as beautiful as before. But that doesn’t matter. We need to find out who committed this crime against me,” Doska said calmly.
Suddenly, the straw doll attacked her as it was in its path toward Draka. He hadn’t stopped the doll while speaking, and because of that, it took advantage of the opening.
But the strike was halted; the doll couldn’t move further. When Draka looked, he saw Doska holding the doll with her hands in silence.
“Did this toy cause you trouble? Even for a first path mage, that’s disappointing,” Doska mocked quietly, tearing the doll in half with her bare hands, then gazed at Draka with a chilling intensity.
“Get up,” she said calmly and walked into the palace without adding any more words.
“This is the first time I’ve seen her so angry! It seems she really intends to deal harshly with whoever messed with her, and it seems my mother instructed her not to take any action and leave the matter to the family elders,” Draka muttered in dismay.
However, his demeanor returned to its usual coldness when he realized he had been as angry as her earlier.
He stood up slowly, brushed off his robes, then approached the doll and quietly removed the hay shard from it before leaving, letting the straw from the doll scatter under the night’s breeze.
.........
The dawn light bathed the grassy lands, sending a downpour of rays that pierced the clouds like sacred spears, illuminating the room with a soft orange hue.
But it wasn’t this that woke Sero; it was the loud crash coming from the ground floor of the inn.
"It seems the matter took less time than I expected. I shouldn’t be late then," Sero said with a light laugh.
"One hundred and twenty gold coins!!" shouted the hunter mage from the previous night, with a dry face and an explosive tone, staring angrily at the bill before him.
"Sir! We are telling you the truth! Remember you paid for that young kid's food!" one of the servants said fearfully.
"Even if it's impossible for one person to eat enough food for a whole family in a day! What did he order?!" the man grumbled in anger.
"He ordered a few dishes of peppers and eggs, and also asked for a discount," the servant replied anxiously.
"Then who ordered the deer meat?!" the mage roared more violently than before, making the servants fear he might start attacking them.
"Please, have mercy!! He must have included an additional person on your bill!!" the servants said, their voices trembling with impending tears.
"And who was invited? Wolves from the forest?!" the mage bellowed, kicking a chair against the wall and smashing it.
"The young lady of the Anira family, named Doska!" the servant cried out in intense fear. Upon hearing that name, the mage's rage turned to hatred.
"Damn it! It seems those servants complained to her, and she came looking for me!" the mage thought anxiously. He knew that what had happened was a consequence of his actions but refused to accept that he was at fault.
To him, paying a high price to bully some insignificant pathless servants was an exaggeration, as if saying that her servants were worth one hundred gold coins.
"Even looking at the bill confirms my theory. All that young brother's food was discounted, while all of her meals were expensive, and she even ordered wine! She must have interrogated him and, in a moment of fear, he yielded to her, even begging for a discount," the mage thought calmly, trying to reach a logical conclusion.
But logic is of no use when one party is manipulating it. Not only did he reach a wrong conclusion, but he also exonerated the guilty party and blamed the innocent one.
But that was just the beginning. The real show was approaching the inn in fury, like a screaming hurricane that burst through the main gate with an explosion of vengeful glances.
"Mages of the First Path Sero Geist and mage of the First Path Hirlo Jin Bei! You are ordered to come for a trial on the charges of assaulting Miss Doska Anira!" A loud and serious voice came from a perfectly built man with a long black beard and short tied hair, wearing elegant attire with a belt bearing the number three.
"High Judge Horai Anira! The humble Hirlo Jin Bei responds to the request," in an instant, the mage known as Jin Bei knelt, and the sound of his kneeling caused the servants to bow in fear.
Jin Bei was a First Path sorcerer who instilled fear in them, let alone a Third Path sorcerer. All they could think of was complete submission.
"What’s going on? Is someone looking for me?" Sero said drowsily, pretending to be innocent, only to open his eyes in shock and kneel on one knee.
"Sir! How could this young subordinate meet your needs!" Sero said with respect and submission, or at least pretended to.
He felt the strong mana of Horai, thus his experience allowed him to know he was not someone to take lightly like Doska or Jin Bei.
"Both of you are ordered to come on the charges of assaulting the young Miss Doska Anira and ruining her appearance, thus tarnishing her reputation within the family. Any attempt to evade will grant me the authority to use force," Horai spoke firmly, his words devoid of emotion, only a strong will to enforce orders.
"This is getting more exciting than I anticipated," Sero thought slyly while showing a shocked and fearful expression, and then both of them walked silently behind the stern Horai.