The young man didn’t loiter around the city square. Though he had arrived a mere minute ago, he already started making his way to exit it. He was distinctly aware of the hundreds of eyes following his lithe. Or maybe it was more accurate to say they were following the holy sword resting comfortably in his grip.

It would be untruthful to claim the attention didn’t faze. He was familiar with the gazes and stares that used to follow his every move, but usually they weren’t done in such a conspicuous way.

Admittedly, seeing this ignited a spark in the young man’s mind, one that could only be called curiosity.

There were so many questions. Why were their gazes locked onto him? Or was it the sword they were more interested in? What even was their relation to Altar? Was he not supposed to unsheathe the sword from the stone?

If he wasn’t supposed to do that, then why did he catch a few others trying the same before he arrived, yet no one batted an eye at those attempts?

And what was with the extravagant performance of freeing the sword? The young man watched as men ten times his size grunt and wheeze, red-faced, as they for some reason couldn’t pick up Altar. Altar wasn’t that heavy. Even now that the sword felt comfortable in his hand, not as light as a feather, but not as heavy as a greatsword—just perfect.

Yet, not even a moment later all those thoughts halted as that spark was smothered under something much greater.

It had happened so fast that his stride hadn’t faltered for even a second. To anyone observing him, it seemed as if he just continued walking without a care in the world.

“Wait!” someone called out from behind him.

The young man turned around. There stood a mountain of a man, the same one he watched attempt and fail to pull Altar from the stone. Being this close, the young man was able to confirm that the mountain-looking man was most certainly ten times his size, probably even more.

Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

He watched as the mountain-looking man’s muscles moved with every breath. Though he couldn’t figure out why the mountain-looking man was seemingly out of breath. It wasn’t as if he was any considerable away.

A subtle glance around revealed that every set of eyes in and around the plaza were centered on the two. Though he did notice one woman in particular was glaring at the mountain-looking man while some sort of liquid dripped from her wet hair. However, there wasn’t any real malice in her gaze, only mild irritation.

It didn’t take much for him to surmise what had happened.

Finally, he regarded the mountain-looking man. “Yes?” His voice came out much higher than he remembered it to be. He was unaccustomed to the sudden changes to his body, but decided to deal with that later.

The young man caught the mountain-looking man’s not-so-subtle glances towards the holy sword in his hand. “That sword…Altar…” he stammered. “How did you do it?” There was a shake in his voice, as if afraid of whatever he was seeing was something utterly impossible.

The young man dragged brown eyes across the crowd once more. It was dead silent in the plaza as they all looked just as eager as the mountain looking man to hear his answer.

The young man understood that there wouldn’t be so much attention on him for no reason. Altar was special to these people in some way, and the act of pulling the sword from the stone was notable. Whether or not that was good or bad for him, he couldn’t tell.

The young man regarded the mountain-looking man. He understood that whatever he said to the man would undoubtedly have consequences later down the line. And while he could lie and and try to bullshit his way through this, he saw no real value in doing so.

So he opted to be honest instead.

“It called me,” he answered.

The mountain-looking man’s eyes widened. “Altar…called you?” He fell silent after, apparently stumped by the answer.

Seeing this, and also seeing no point in continuing the conversation, the young man made to exit the plaza. He had somewhere to be after all.

And again he was stopped by the mountain-looking man. Who somehow looked even more haggard than before.

“Who are you? What’s your name? And what do you mean Altar called you?”

The young man sighed.

“My name is Oscar. That’s it.”

And with that, the young man—Oscar—finally exited the city square.