Rayen’s smokey body floated in front of a perfect replica of the Oasis’ canal system. And with pitch-black eyes that hid one’s curiosity, he observed the clear water flowing in the canal. Moments later, a bunch of sand appeared in his hands, which he then went to drop into the flowing water. It simply disappeared into the void, but his question remained. Why did the one named Azir make him do that? He thought some more, but as always, no one was here to reply to his silent queries. With no way out, he gave up and turned his body back. Into some distance was a replica of a house where he spent most of his time, his home. Going through the same door, he walked up the stairs, into the same hallway up the door of his room. For some reason, he never wanted to fly inside the house, and would walk slowly, glancing past the empty furniture along the way. In his room, he settled himself into his bed. A book flew to him from the window. Bardar once said that when in doubt, read a book. The book in his hand had a rather peculiar name. “Seven Colours of Life: Joy''.
***
In the newly built Oasis’ city wall, rows of brand-new, but mostly empty houses dotted the once-ruined area. Even from the outlook, the new houses were sized bigger than before, and looked no less than a well-off neighbourhood with well-designed architecture, fitted with a balcony, a small back garden, and most importantly, a constant supply of water. In fact, Bardar had outdone the very limit from the past. He connected not only the public spaces but also all buildings with the central water canal system, and with that, eliminated the need to supply water through manual means. For people who had lived most of their lives in Oasis, and especially those who lived here for more than five decades ago, before the onset of the Divine War against Thar, it left the most profound impact. Even for those who arrived not long ago, the impact was no less.
One such person who was impacted greatly was none other than Azir. He never thought that one day, there would be a big house in the place of the pile of ruins that he called home. And not only that, but a black slate with golden words etched in front of the house, with ‘Azir’ written on it. It was such that he stared at the name till his eyes started to get wet. It was a good thing that Cherry handed him some napkins from her space pouch, that he didn’t cry outright, and firmly cemented the image of Cherry as the nanny dog, much to the latter’s dismay. Bella packed everything in her space pouch, and it's not like she usually carries these around. But her internal grumbling stopped when Azir asked for a chalk from her, well she had that too, and under her eyes, Azir wrote Rayen and her name just beside his.
However, when they entered the door, they found the house relatively empty. The lack of any furniture also eased Azir a little. He still didn’t like to receive excessive help from others. But otherwise, the house not only improved on almost every parameter but also kept some parts the same from the ruins. Like the hidden compartment on the floor where Azir hid all his savings along with food. On another note, it too seemed to be improved as some runes flashed inside the space. The lack of bed was fulfilled by Cherry’s soft fur, thus came the sun of the next day. Everyone slept till the afternoon.
“Alright, almost done.” Azir gave a satisfied look at the pouch of his coins. A mana awakening portion cost around five hundred copper coins or five silver, he now had four hundred and eighty-eight with him. He wanted to buy it the next day, but then his face turned a little down as he remembered that he needed to place the order for it first, and then wait for it to be transported from outside. To no one’s surprise, no one makes a mana potion in Oasis. Despite this, Azir was not lost in the moment of heat, his goal was much larger. And just looking at the glimpse of the powerhouse of Oasis, who can create cities in a matter of hours, with pinpoint accuracy. The thought only made his will stronger. ‘More books need to be brought soon’. His professor once promised to allow him to study for higher standards if he could awaken his mana. Since his mana awakening is all but set, he thought about buying some books in advance, and going through them before going to pursue a higher standard. Decided such, and took out a slip of paper from the space. On it was a list of densely packed names of different books, each separated by one’s chosen profession. A list Azir asked his professor to make when he was in the last days of his academy.
“Hiss … what are you doing behind me?” Azi said as he felt some breaths on his back, and when he looked at the culprit, it was Rayen, along with Cherry. One was staring at him while the latter was at the list in his hand. “Ahem! Right, do you need something Rayen?”
“Woof!”
“I asked him, not you.”
“Woof!”
“Ai, what my life has become. Alright, what are you doing behind my back?” As Azir lamented his fate of arguing with a dog, the time became sand on a fist, and kept slipping.
***
“Is he going to do that?”
“Shss… don't be so loud.”
“But still, to ban the tradition of beast tides. It’s just absurd.” Marisol said as she looked at her coworker, and her cautious head behind the veil.
“Don’t you know how things were here for the past week?” Marisol pursed her lips to her friend’s question.
“I will be going then.” Marisol found her friend’s unwillingness to talk anymore, and thus took the now-prepared tray from her friend’s hands and left the kitchen. Both of them arrived at Oasis about a week ago from their home branch, the southern port city of Thar. Initially, they were excited, rightfully so, as they were among the ones handpicked by their seniors to work at Oasis. They are supposed to take over the work as maids in the mansion. It was nothing short of a dream come true, who doesn’t want to work in the city attributed as heaven? It was after coming here that they found the situation to be very different from their initial thoughts. The city was as the rumours described it, but the same can’t be said for the City Lord’s mansion. The very first day when they arrived here in a batch, the same amount of people got fired from the mansion. Fired, not transferred. The one who fired them was called Cellia, the fiancé of soon-to-be Lord of Thar, Bardar.
On top of that, they also heard a major reshuffle being done not only in Oasis, but also in other cities. All by the directives of their new lord, Bardar, but for some reason, Marisol felt it was Cellia’s order, but she kept that thought to herself. Through a series of doors and hallways, she was near her destination. But before she could enter, some guards outside stopped her, and under the veil that hid her displeased eyes, they cast some magic on the food. ‘Just who would poison anyone in the holy land?’ For a city whose guards lacked even the basic weapons on them, such an action felt like an insult to Marisol. For her, it's unbecoming that anyone would commit a crime in their holy land. This procedure, which was added just some days ago, only reinforced the view among her that the new lord was afraid for his life. Not a good outlook for a warrior.
Inside, in the middle of the large decorated room with various shiny ornaments, three people sat. Two men, and one woman. Precisely, Bladurus, Bardar, and Cellia. They seemed undisturbed by her arrival, in fact, they didn’t even glance at her. But Marisol was experienced with her work, and thus instead of pausing for their attention, she silently moved closer to the table and poured tea for the three. The short blue-haired woman picked the cup almost instantly, but the other two didn’t. Instead, they seemed to be in a tense confrontation. As she backed away and stood near the wall, she could hear Bladurus’ words, coupled with his knitted eyebrows, which almost made his eyes disappear. “ Listen, I knew you didn't like it. But it’s no longer a matter of one’s liking anymore.”
“ I knew. I just wanted to give it more thought.”
“ Look, we have already confirmed the trader’s words. And he told us, the package is ready to be dispatched, given we start moving from our side too.” Bladurus then noticed the tea on the table and took a sip while Bardar kept tapping on the table with his finger. After the sip, Bladurus continued. “ Besides, he is getting too impatient these days.”
“ He waited for so long. Surely he could wait some more.” Bardar was still not willing to agree with Bladurus, which seemed to have riled up the latter, who said with a little higher voice.
“ It’s not about time, Bardar. He said things are getting tough there. If we keep delaying it anymore, then he’s not sure if he could keep things under wraps. We would pay the increased price at the end, not him. We should start the next phase immediately.”
“...”
As the discussion continued, Marisol couldn’t help, but internally get displeased with the soon-to-be lord. It was no secret among Thar that Bardar, though famous for his golem-making skills, rarely ever excelled with others. Especially more so, for a nation which requires quick decision-making. Thar did not look favourably towards an indecisive leader. At this moment, Cellia put her cup down and gently nudged Bardar. “ Bardar, I think you shouldn’t try to delay it any longer. We would not be saving any more lives by doing this.”
From what they could see, the war was almost on the horizon. One can’t avoid it, a lot depends on it. The other side would not compromise on the things they demand, something they know all too well. But Bardar still wanted to look for some way, something inside him wanted to try a hand at negotiation, even though the outcome looked all too bleak. But at last, he knew there was no escape from this, and Bardar released a long sigh. “ So, we would finally go east, then.”
'East?’ Marisol thought about a sudden promotion when East was mentioned. She didn’t know why she was allowed to listen to such talk. But in the absence of any other order, her mind started to wander off. One of the open secrets of Thar was the unruliness of the eastern parts of the Thar. Different from Terralea, where the ruling structure follows the way of houses. Thar’s overall structure follows more concentrated powers, with some big city centres surrounded by many smaller but numerous tribes scattered under its area of influence. A city lord ruled each such big city, with being a Grand knight or Grand mage rank. That’s not all, but under each city lord, was a fully functional military, guarding their own area of influence. In total, there are five such individual large cities and seven large armies that make Thar’s military might. In case of war, Oasis needs to ask them to dispatch their armies, as otherwise, Oasis holds no other army of its own.
The lack of armies under Oasis’s direct control was not an issue in normal times, as Oasis had something that those city lords didn’t command over monster beasts. In a sense, it’s a division of power between Oasis and the city lords of Thar. Oasis then collects taxes from all cities in a centralised form, which eventually gets distributed over the cities in different ratios. The system works fine when it works, but when it doesn't, it crashes with a big noise.
‘I wonder. Is the East really dead set on opposing Lord Bardar? The difference in power looks huge. Is that why he’s afraid of assassination?’ The Divine War had changed a lot of things. Even though the armies of the Church perished, they left many scars, quite deep ones, in fact. The population and economy of many parts of Thar faced a near collapse just after the war, but the eastern part not only recovered, but also boomed. That’s not all. Under the succession rules of Thar, though the past rulers could recommend a new ruler, the actual accession depends on the skill of the candidate. The war as a means of opposing the accession, is the legal way of Thar.
Marisol looked at the face of Bardar from the side, and her feelings about the upcoming war just got stronger. Eastern city lord, was none other than the once the two favourite sons of the Great Mother. Everyone in Thar thought either he or his brother would be the one succeeding her, but in the end, she chose Bardar, a relatively less popular person in Thar. Despite her words being paramount among Thar, even more paramount for Thar, was keeping the pride of the Great Mother high. ‘Isn’t it also the reason for divine war…’ Her thoughts got cut off as she heard a much stronger voice from Bardar, who seemed to have finally decided on something.
Bardar picked up his quill and signed on some paper. “ I ordered the dispatch of Gold Keepers. Have them audit the records of Easparton. “
“ What if they refused?” Bladurus asked, though it’s not a question if they would refuse the audit, but how they would refuse the audit.
“ It was just a formality, wasn’t it?” Cellia said as a matter of fact. “ Give a call to all other city lords to come to Oasis. By the time Gold Keepers do their work, we would be ready to dispatch troops.” Bardar said nothing to her, and Bladurus seemed more than satisfied by such an outcome.
“I should reply to our trader as?” Bladurus asked at last.
“Why bother?” Bardar said as he picked up his now lukewarm tea. “ He will get the message loud and clear soon.” And then drank the whole cup in one go.
Since the cups got empty, Marisol picked each one into her tray and silently left the room. Bladurus soon followed after. When only two of them were left, Cellia said, looking after the fading figure of Marisol. “She looked like a thoughtful person.”
“Didn’t you hand-pick her? Still, why did you allow her to listen to us?”
“Don’t you know?” She smiled at his question. “ Rumours travel fast among women. We need that, don’t we?”
****
Five days later, in the eastern part of Thar. A long range of continuous peaks that reached high up to the sky. Stretching from the north and into the south, and thus called Verdant Divides. These mountains marked the end of Thar’s eastern border, and divided the Southern continent into two parts, two-thirds of which consisted of a desert ruled by humans under the Thar empire with the other half continent full of lush-full, rainforest ruled by a race known for their love for nature, Elves. Their relationship with Thar, who lived in the desert was like fire and ice. That’s why Thar established one of their most important cities near the peaks of Verdant Divides, to guard the mountain passes, and prevent the invasion of elves.
Some distance from the mountain ranges was the biggest city of the Thar. Its size outmatched even that of Oasis, but population and size seemed to be its only advantage. The city lacked any wall, and was built with the simple use of bricks and mud. Same for the streets, which looked as if someone put some marking on the sides and called the middle sands a road. Except for the mansion of the city lord and some structures around it, which were built using brownstones. But it did have one thing that stood out from the rest. A giant outline of a Scorpion was etched on the top of the building's entrance. Made from the carcasses of beasts, and glowing-white bones of elves. Inside one such building made of stone, beside a road with heavy traffic of people much larger in density than any of Oasis. A man with a stern expression slammed the table hard, his face distorted with rage. “ You still have no information, do you? I wonder what reason the esteemed officer will give me today?”
The man looked around the sixties, with clothes slightly different from the khaki-coloured clothes worn by Thar’s officials. Instead, he wore black clothes with the same design, with golden strips running from the shoulder to down below. On his left chest was an emblem with an image of a sealed treasure chest, with some coins spilt beside it, everything was drawn in pure gold. Behind him were two people in almost the same attire, but a little younger than him. One man and another female. From the agency of Gold Keepers or simply Treasurers, under the direct command of Oasis. Their work, as their names would suggest, involved keeping records of all revenue by all cities in Thar. Money moved everything. That’s why the Gold Keepers had a wide range of authority and had the right to inspect any document from anyone, even from the City lord himself if they deemed so necessary, but that never happened throughout Thar’s entire history. The three of them were here to find those irregularities as Easparton had been evading sending their share of taxes to Oasis for some time. So after going through the initial trouble, they asked for the documents, but the answer from the official in front of them, with a small scorpion badge on his chest, was nothing short of disrespect towards their authority.
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“ Sir, as you can see, I can only offer this much for now…”
These words infuriated the old man, who was also the leader of a three-man team. The other two behind him were also like him, with anger hidden behind their eyes. Before coming here, their head had informed them that the conflict between Oasis and eastern city lords was heating up, and when they were told to come here they expected some difficulties, but the treatment they received after arriving here was beyond their imagination. On the first day, which was two days ago, they were not allowed to enter the City Mansion, which was a little unexpected but that was just the beginning. Next, their request for an official residence was denied, citing a lack of vacancies. As the last option, they went to look for a private one, only to be refused again, and for the same reasons. One even said there was a lack of air quality in the room before showing them the door.
They had to look for one shabby-looking room, with no furniture to speak of, downtown after paying a hefty price. Thus, the man beside the leader already had enough of these, and so he released his magic to put pressure on his voice and asked directly.
“ Is that all you can say? We want a definite time for when you will bring the rest.” As he used force, the officer in front seemed a little nervous but still repeated his previous words.
“ Sir, as you can see, our bureaucracy here is a little slow, but I will try my best.” He then pointed at the table. " Until then, why don’t you start working on the documents over there?”
On the leader’s right, the woman with slightly darker skin tone, ruffled red hair, and light red eyes, the junior officer said in a mocking tone, “ What would be the time you will suggest it will take us to go through them? For two pages barely containing 120 words each? Maybe 3 or 6 months?”
“ Mam, I think no amount of information is big or small.” The official gave her a dead-eye expression. She could tell, this guy’s skin was quite thick.
"Oh?" The man with cropped hair, piercing blue eyes, and olive-toned skin on the left said while raising his eyebrows. "Since it was such a case, why didn’t you call your City Lord here? Surely, such valuable information is worth his time?"
"Sir Mike, I had to remind you to take care of your words," the official seemed to get angry at Mike’s words. "Also, Sir, the City Lord was busy and would not be available for a meeting on short notice, as I already told you before."
The exchanges between them were endless, with one side pressing the other for more documents and the other dodging the best he could. Both sides continued in a deadlock until late at night when the guards came and three ‘decided’ to leave with the escort of guards. After they left, the official finally released a long breath and wiped the sweat off his head, but didn’t sit for a rest immediately. Instead, he moved towards the inner room of the building and knocked on the door with a nameplate, Vice city lord, Adrian.
"Sir, they have left, but they will return again tomorrow," he said soon after entering. Across the middle of the room was a middle-aged man. The man looked quite handsome with raven-colored hair, pale golden eyes, and a short beard to his chin. He looked at the official and said with a carefree voice, "You did a good job." He paused after seeing his subordinate with a tired face and dry voice and said with a smile, "Don’t worry. Hard work always pays off at the end."
He then dismissed the tired but eager official and sat back in the chair. With a quick spell, a bottle of red wine along with a glass flew into his hand from the drawer to his left. He poured himself a glass with a strange smile on his face, making his golden tooth barely visible. When he was close to taking a sip, he muttered to himself, "Today was a lovely day." He looked in the direction where the city of Oasis was supposed to be and then rubbed his fingers on the golden cup before drinking the whole glass. 'The wine tasted exceptionally lovely today.'
***
"Sir, it got out of hand," After they arrived at their residence, Mike said to their leader, John. "Why weren't we asking for reinforcements from the capital? We couldn't handle these officials on our own at all." There was more truth to his voice than just authority. Both he and Margretta were only at the level of an official mage.
"Sir, I also second him. These officials here are simply too contumacious," Margretta felt anger rising in her chest whenever she glanced at the shabby-looking house they were currently in. Their leader, John, was calmer. He looked at their sullen faces and slowly sat down on the floor. Seeing him like this, the other two looked at each other and followed suit. This was a small mud house on the outskirts of the city. The house looked dirty and weak, as if it would collapse any moment, but that’s the only shelter they could find. Seeing them sitting across from him, John finally said to them, "It's not like I didn’t send a letter back when we just arrived here."
"Is there still no response from them, sir?" Mike asked in a voice that almost sounded like he was looking for a straw to grab onto. He couldn’t help it. He felt that the atmosphere of officials here seemed to contain more than just disobedience, and he trusted his feelings. They all had to travel to the city’s mansion for the past few days and had to start walking even before the sun woke up as the passage was riddled with guards, who always stopped them at almost every crossroad for ‘checkups’. Being late meant the door was closed for them as they were ‘visitors’.
"I did receive a reply," John said as he scratched his chin a little.
"You did," Margretta asked. If one looked closely, there were dark circles under her semi-red eyes. "What did they say?"
Mike also looked very hopeful as he said to her, "Surely, Margretta, the letter should have our retreat order. There is no way we can keep up here any longer."
"...the order does not contain any such things," John said, pouring cold water on their hope. They all were from different cities. But he still had read their files. Mike and Margretta were not weak-willed people; it’s just their intuition, which was exceptional and it was screaming at them to leave this city at once. John could guess why it even got mentioned in their files. ‘Rough gems?’ he thought, looking at his juniors. He said the latter parts of the order, "We are to continue with our work as it is, and they have noted our complaint."
A silence descended in the room when Mike thought of something and said, “Sir John, I think we should try to give a detailed report explaining our situation here as they might not have…”
“Mike, I have already done so on the first day, and the second day, too. The point is, that they eventually allowed us to examine some records, which put doubts on their real intentions. Now, Oasis would just look at it from the sidelines until the situation became clearer.”
John did wonder just how well Mike and Margretta understood their current situation. Or did they understand, but didn’t want to show it? If the records on their files were to go by, they should have gotten a promotion long ago. But of course, with their uncompromising attitude of work, probably their work got them into more trouble than necessary. So one might believe they were out of favour from the top heads, but that’s not true either, because before John came here, his City Lord had some personal message for him. John still remembered his words, ‘Just, look out for these young hatchlings. Would be better if you could teach them how to get things done.’ He could see the duo as hot-headed. Mike looked on the verge of cursing someone but swallowed it back, seeing himself in front of John. He wanted to sigh when his eyebrows suddenly raised. On his left arm, a small circle lit up, which turned red.
“Sir, did something happen?” Margretta asked. Among the three, John was the strongest, high-mage rank official. Mike, too, put a hand on his space ring, ready to bring out his anchor at a moment’s notice. The circle on John’s arm disappeared while his brows eased too. He released his shoulders and said with an easygoing voice.
“We got some guests.” Here, John pulled out three cups and poured some tea into them. “Keep calm and let me do the talking. Understood?”
But Mike and Margretta couldn’t reply as the rapid sounds of heavy boots came from outside. Mike was going to check but sat down again, seeing the eyes of John, who then flicked his fingers at just the right time, which made the wooden door open. Like this, a leather boot entered the room. The man to whom the foot belonged became a little unstable as the door opened before he could kick it open. But as a trained knight, he didn’t fall. It allowed others to observe him more closely. The knight wore light leather armour, a short sword on his wrist, and a brown cloth draped around his face that matched his overall reddish armour. Typical attire for forces under Easparton. He also did the same and found Mike and Margretta staring at him with angry faces, while the old man at the centre calmly drank his tea before asking him, “It’s my honour to meet an Esteemed knight of Easparton. I am John. The male one beside me is Mike, and the female one is Margretta.”
The knight, taken aback by the calm tone, took a moment to get his words together and said, “Ruth, Official Knight rank. Under XII Mountaineering division.”
“So, Sir Ruth, I wonder what could have demanded your presence at such a late night? Surely, not a cup of tea, but it’s not like I would mind another company.”
Ruth stared at John, but that was only for a second. “I am not here for tea. I have received news that some elves might be hiding here. I am searching for it. I have the search warr-”
“Ai, those damn elves. They always run over here to create trouble in our holy land,” John cut him off. He also nodded his head to Ruth, which baffled not only the knight but also Mike and Margretta. “As the sons of the Great Mother, surely we cannot allow those elves to mix among our sands. Mike, Margretta, let’s go out and have our friend search this house.” John picked up his things and moved his eyes.
This confused everyone in the room. Seeing Mike and Margretta also following behind John, Ruth stared for a long time. ‘Is that how this raid is supposed to be?’ He thought. For he can’t help it. Tonight, he was asked to raid this house, hosting a bunch of Gold Keepers. In simple words, late-night harassment. When he first found out that the guy leading Gold Keeper was a High Mage, he was sweating, but when he found that he would go along for this operation, he was panicking inside and thus almost lost his balance just a moment ago. But the orders are such, and so he braced himself and kicked the door. And almost lost his balance because of panic. In fact, behind the cloth, he was still sweating with a heart that kept punching his chest from the inside out. He thought a lot. Would the guy be angry and fire a big spell at him? But the response seemed unusual. He quickly pulled out his scorpion badge, and its colour was still red, representing no curse being thrown at him. He released a sigh of relief and looked at the small, empty room. He couldn’t help but scratch his head. ‘Just what am I supposed to search here?’ He never thought he would reach this point.
Still, he was already here, so he just ruffled some sand here and there. He even knocked on the wall, but as expected, there was nothing to be found. At last, he decided to move on to the next step, that is, the interrogation of suspects. Thinking of the step, his throat felt a little dry, and he pulled a pouch of water, drank a big mouthful of it and then raised his chest to go outside again.
“Sir, I want-”
“Sir Ruth, this is not good.” Outside, in the middle of the night, the usual cramped street was empty. Other than the trio that just got out. Seeing them, Ruth just wanted to ask, but John again cut him off. This time he looked a little angry too. ‘Finally, he’s behaving like a normal person.’ Ruth thought. At this moment, he glanced at the eyes of Margretta and found them to be glowing red. The light made him dazed a little, and then like being jerked out of a bad dream, he came back to himself. Sweat covered his head, as he hastily looked at his badge and only when he found it to be the same as before did he release his breath. After he wiped the sweat, he didn’t dare to look at Margretta again, but asked John with a strong voice.
“I don’t understand your words, Sir John. Are you trying to st-”
“We shouldn’t trust the elves. What if they used some illusion magic and hid among humans?” John said, without giving him any room for argument. “We should be interrogating everyone on the scene.”
“Huh? That’s right. All of you now-”
“Luckily for you, Sir Ruth. Today you got some trustworthy people to help you out on your noble cause.”
“Eh?”
“Don’t worry, Sir, I know you have doubts, but worry not. For I am here to help.” John hastily pulled out a bunch of papers and handed them to Ruth. Ruth found them to be the records from the checkpoint. Like afraid he would not understand the meaning, John continued with his words. “As you can see, we are verified officials. On this day alone, our credentials had been verified a total of 48 times. And this paper has the sign of each of the officers that approved of us.”
“I-”
“Don’t say anything, sir, I know your doubt. You want to ask, is the paper authentic or not? Am I right?”
“I am sa-”
“Look here.” John’s old hands were unlike his age, as they skillfully took Ruth’s scorpion badge and brought them closer to the seal on the documents, which looked like chains of a mountain. The seal started to glow in red light, verifying the authenticity of the papers. “See, now you have verified us. Let’s go.”
“Go? Where?”
“Of course, to kick those bastard elves' asses.” John seemed to be a different person, and he started to curse. Ruth even noticed some of John’s saliva being spilled onto his clothes. He started to feel uncomfortable around this old man. John was not done as he pointed to the other shabby house to his left. “Let’s start our search from there. Hey, you ungrateful bastards, open the door for Sir Ruth. We are here under his command to search you. Sir Ruth’s sword would cut anyone who disagrees in half.”
“Who’s the fucking drunkard, shouting at the night?!!” An angry voice came from the door. Ruth got cold feet just listening to this. He knew this street was infamous for criminals and the owner of the voice looked less than kind of person. And quite enough, he got his feeling confirmed by the next line. “Shut your damn trash of a mouth, or I will pull that rotten tongue of yours.”
The voice seemed to come from the door, but something felt wrong to Ruth. Everything else was so quiet. Not even the sounds from insects could be heard anymore, only the howling of the cold winds of the night that sent shivers down his spine every time they blew. He found it strange and thus wanted to calm the person before him, but his ‘teammates’ didn’t seem to think the same. “Oi, how dare you call Sir Ruth a pile of rotten trash, with a pest-infected dump yard?”
'He wanted to murder with a borrowed knife.’ Ruth thought he found the reason for John’s actions. Something more strange happened as his senses started to notice an unknown number of eyes locked onto his body. He turned his eyes to the sides and noticed slight movements in the darkness of the spaces between the buildings. He didn’t know what, no matter how he looked, but his eyes never picked a clear picture of the figure. He felt a hand touching his right shoulder, but when he moved his head to look, no one was there. Next was a small laughter that reached his ears, it sounded like a woman. The source was the same dark place from a moment ago. This revelation sent his heart almost flying, and he hastily distanced himself from John who was coming closer to him with a strange smile. “I just received news from the HQ, the elves are now captured. See you later.” As soon as Ruth said that, from behind him, an outline of a beast emerged and he disappeared the next moment.
“Ai, Sir Ruth … And he’s not coming back.” John clapped his hands with a quick nod to himself. But as he was doing so, he felt strange stares at his back. He turned around and found Mike and Margretta looking at him silently. He got confused by such and asked them directly. “What happened? Is my performance not good?”
“It’s good.” Mike was the first one to say. But he felt something was incorrect. Isn’t it supposed to be a little different? ‘Why does it feel like something important happened just now but at the same time, didn’t?’ He thought.
John didn’t seem to think like him and tapped his back in appreciation as he said, “You are not bad either, lad. I didn’t know you had such good talent with voice mimicry magic. Man, he didn’t even doubt a bit about it.”
“It’s nothing, sir.” Mike could only say so.
“Margretta, you are also very good with your confusing magic. You have a real knack for scaring people.”
"Thank you very much, sir." She didn’t feel happy about it.
“Alright, let’s go and sleep. Tomorrow we have a lot to do.” John yawned a bit and moved into the house. Mike and Margretta stared into each other’s eyes for a while, and only when the chilly winds of the night awoke them did they follow him inside. They had a feeling this old man was going to do something very soon.