'Can't believe the old man made me get groceries again. I get that he's making something special for Alex, but now that he locks himself up in that forge of his all day long, I have to do everything around the house.'
Their hut was located on the hillside. 4 miles north-west of here you would find the Roshigi forest and 5miles to the west of the Roshigi forest you could find the nearest kingdom. It was exactly this kingdom that Tujitou had to go to today.
Tujitou looked up and sighed as he saw Brague’s emblem. A hand that held the chains that chained each head of a 5-headed hydra. Brague was the closest kingdom to them. It was also one of the largest guilds on earth. It belonged to the guild "The Unchained". It was one of the top guilds in the Lygis. Some powerful and wealthy guilds made sure to establish a city of their own in each realm for their families, the unleveled that they had recruited and for the fallen*. It was highly populated with people. The nobles of such kingdoms were the family members of the leveled who were part of the guild. The higher the position the leveled had in the guild, the higher the echelon of the family members as nobles. The leveled themselves were seen as gods by their people. It was extremely rare for leveled to come back to earth, due to various restrictions they had to uphold by Beyond. Some also thought that life in the Lygis was better than in their respective realm. So given that only unleveled could have gone into the Lygis to become leveled, they created cities for their family members to live in.
Upon his arrival, he headed straight to the marketplace. It was very crowded with many people, but there were also animals that were being sold off. You could smell the different spices being sold, hear people bargaining with the merchants to lower their prices, see the housewives gossiping and feel the heat of the sun. Even though you could find merchants from almost all other cities here, Tujitou only went to one merchant to buy his groceries.
"Hey, granny! How is it going today?"
"Hello, Tujitou. As always you're my only customer" said an elderly woman with a smile.
There was nothing wrong with the items the woman sold. Most people didn't want to buy anything there, because their children and they themselves were afraid of the old woman. She had many scars on her face. Not only that but she also had lost her left eye and left arm. Also compared to the tents of the other merchants, hers was very run down.
"Did Tsander send you all by yourself again?"
"Yeah. He's been busy these days. He locks himself up in the forge and only comes out to eat and sleep" Tujitou said as he scratched his head.
"And don't tell anyone" Tujitou signaled her to come closer as he leaned forward to whisper into her ear "he hasn't taken a shower for about a week now".
She burst out in laughter after hearing what Tujitou said.
"It must be something very special that he's making then."
"Yeah, I hope so. Oh yeah granny this is what I need to buy this time."
Tujitou pulled out a piece of paper from his pocket. It was a list of everything he needed to buy. He opened it up and handed it to her.
"Seems to be the usual. Did you bring your shopping bag with you?"
"Oh yeah, here it is granny" Tujitou replied as he handed her his brown bag.
Tujitou waited and looked around. He didn't have much to do, so he just stood there looking at the different animals and items that were being sold off.
"Please sir, I need it to cure my daughter's illness and there won't be another batch of medicinal herbs until next month."
"And does it look like I care? I'm Agons Throsmore, an instructor from The Breague Academy for the Gifted. These will be used to nurture our young unleveled so they can grow strong to defend and honor our glorious kingdom. Now is your daughter an unleveled?"
[AGONS THROSMORE]
Race: Fallen Human*
Gender: Male
Age: 58
Weight: 75kg
Height: 6’00”
"No sir, but"
"But nothing! Ridiculous that you deem the life of a lowly human equal to that of an unleveled. Right beside me, the son of the great and mighty Lazerus Anderson stands. Gabriel Anderson."
"Wait? Did he say the son of the Lazerus Anderson?" a man said with great admiration.
"He's right, I saw him before."
"I can't believe we get to see a demigod right in front of our eyes."
[GABRIEL ANDERSON]
Race: Unleveled Human
Gender: Male
Age: 9
Weight: 5’1”
Height: 47kg
The boy who stood next to him wore the uniform of the Brague Academy for the Gifted. A dark blue uniform with what looked to be runes sewn out of small golden chains. It also had the emblem of the guild The Unchained on the left chest side of his uniform. Agons looked around at the faces of the crowd with a smirk on his face.
"These herbs shall be used for unleveled like him or are you willing to tell me that your daughter is more important than higher beings like him?"
Everyone just stood there watching not knowing what else to do. The man who begged for medicine was on his knees crying for his ill daughter. Tujitou's blood boiled with anger. As he took a step forward, he heard granny's voice.
"I wouldn't do that if I were you. There’s a reason why no one is helping that poor lad out. They say kingdoms were built for us as a way to thank us for nurturing leveled when they were unleveled, but that's just a load of crap if you ask me. Kingdoms were built so unleveled could be trained into becoming their loyal soldiers. It's all a facade. The second any dud* messes with an unleveled, they get arrested or worse. So tell me Tujitou. What was a little dud like yourself going to do against an instructor of Brague's academy?"
Tujitou was still furious, but she got through to him. He knew that he couldn't do anything. Nobody else but Moroña, Alexander and Tsander knew that he was an unleveled. Every unleveled is born with a diverse amount of aqua. If the amount of aqua they have depletes to zero, they then either die, become crippled, or lose their gift. That's why every unleveled became a part of a kingdom. Due to the monthly supply of aqua leveled provided to the academies, they could train their bodies and gifts to grow stronger without any worries. But Tujitou and Alexander were not part of a kingdom, much less an academy. So revealing himself as an unleveled would have caused a lot of trouble.
"So I'm just supposed to stand here and watch?"
"Do you believe you can do anything else?"
Tujitou turned around to the old woman and saw her handing him his bag.
"Thanks, granny" Tujitou grabbed the bag and walked away.
"That is if you are human" the old woman said to herself.
This was the first time Tujitou had to hold back his emotions. It was an unfamiliar feeling to him. As he walked away he glanced back at the crying man and muttered the words “I’m sorry” to him. As he walked back home he wondered what Alexander would’ve done. Tujitou greatly admired his brother Alexander. Alexander had no faults and always knew what had to be done. When he arrived home he kept pondering as to what Alexander would’ve done to the point where it started to annoy him.
“Screw it. I’ll just go visit him tomorrow and ask him myself.”
The next day Tujitou prepared himself to go visit Alexander. So Alexander wouldn’t get suspicious of Tujitou, he prepared a basket with Alexander’s favorite dish. He also made sure Tsander would not notice this, otherwise he would’ve immediately known what Tujitou was planning on doing. The Roshigi forest was known for having a lot of wild animals. It was exactly this forest in which Tsander always hunts for food meat and also the forest in which Tujitouw was found. One of Tsander’s many rules was to never enter the Roshigi forest without his permission. One his way Tujitou kept second-guessing if he really should’ve gone through with it. When he finally arrived there he looked at the stretch of trees he usually just looks at from the distance when he makes his way to Brague. As he looked around he saw a board which was nailed onto one of the trees at the entree-way. The words “Enter at own risk!!! Beware of dangerous wild animals!!!” were written on it.
As he looked at the board he took a deep breath and said:” what’s the worst that could happen?”, and walked into the Roshigi forest.
*fallen=> someone who gave up or lost the right to be in the Lygis and can't use aqua and their gift anymore.
*dud => someone born without a gift/aqua
Comments (0)
See all