After Maria helped Nemu to stand and led her to her house. I started thinking of something being different here. Because in normal circumstances a whole village is ordained to perish at the same time.

It was because everyone in the village roughly was of the same age and because of that everyone would die at the same time. We call that day 'The Ordinance or the Ordained day'.

During that particular a ray of light would appear on the respective villages, which we know as a 'Ray of Judgement' which took away the life force and made them hollow corpses. Only the children of the village were left to live.

But this village was different. There was no Ordinance or Ray of Judgement, but a single person had died rather than a whole village. Which was suspiciously surprising.

As I was thinking, I saw Maria walking towards me. I had clear my doubt so I asked,

"There was no Ordinance. How did he die?"

"Oh! Right....You don't know." She replied with a smile and started walking towards the village gate. I followed her and she continued,

"After Ordinance, many children are left alone in this world. For them to survive among these harsh environment is difficult. So, the Generals of the War Council decided something"

"What?"

"That every infant or an child below five years of age with or without a sibling will be taken under the care of the War Council and will be put together in these special provinces."

"I see.."

After hearing that, I quickly understood why people here died on a different days. Because different villages and everyone would also be of different ages.

"What's your age?" I asked her.

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She looked at me with a disappointed face, "Never ask a woman her age.." she said as she looked away.

I apologized with a sorry face. She looked at me and smiled again.

Probably thought 'I was cute...maybe funny.'

"Same as yours: Seventeen"

She answered with a straight face, "I have only got three years. So, I want to enjoy," she said as she looked at the sky and a sudden realization hit me.

"Three? You are an Adventurer?" I asked her.

Because if you were an adventurer, it was mandatory for you to give up you Five years of Life. But, instead you were given the utmost respect and also a place to live for free.

"Yes, I was part of a Guild." she answered.

"What happened then?"

"They....died," she said with a sorrowful expression and I decided not to talk about it anymore.

As we walked to the village gate I saw a familiar face waiting on the roadside. It was Buzz.

"Hey!" I greeted him.

"Hello," he said as he scanned my body with his eyes, "You look perfectly fine."

"Yeah, thanks to her."

"I didn't do anything. I mean not anything special." she said.

"Well, you need to runaway." said Buzz with a tensed expression.

"Why?" I asked him because it was unclear to me for why should I runaway, "Have I done anything wrong?"

"No...It's just..."

"What?"

"He is talking about you being a 'Darkel'." said Maria as she saw that we were getting nowhere.

"A Darkel? Me?"

"Yes, you didn't never felt anything until yesterday when you attacked the Lamia. The energy and aura you released was that of a Darkel. You should runaway when you can."

"I should?"

"You know, people are already afraid of them and if the village head finds this out. They might kill you."

"But how could I be..."

"I know this is hard for you, but I have seen similar people like you. The Essence of Death always remained dormant inside you. But yesterday you somehow awakened it. It's not your fault that you are like this, but the world doesn't see it this way. Please runaway and you might just live.."

I was shocked and I had no words to say. My eyes went pale and I looked around. I tried assessing the situation but I was unable to. Everything felt fuzzy and unnatural to me.

As I was thinking of what to do next. A thought popped in my mind.

"Ishi?" I asked Buzz, "What about her? What will happen to her?"

"You don't think about her..."

"What? I can't leave her behind. They'll...."

"There's nothing you can do. Chin ratted us out. We were going to keep you secret, but he told the village headman about you and so they captured her."

"What will they do to her?"

"The Ritual..." he said as cast down his face.

"No....." I said.