[Cowell City | 25th day | Early Fall]

[Isaiah's POV]

Dirty water splashed as my boots stomped against the puddles of water that had formed at the crevices in the dirt road.

My figure blurred as I zoomed forward. Rows of trees loomed on my lane, and instead of dodging or changing direction, my momentum instead heightened as a short burst of speed released from me.

When I'm just 5 meters from crashing against the tree trunk, I leapt upwards.

With my charging momentum, the moment my feet touched the body of the tree while mid-air, my hands deftly grabbed at it's bark and used the remaining force from my sprint to bolt myself up.

When I arrived at the lowest branch of the tree, I jumped once more and into the next tree branch I landed.

I leapt, and leapt from tree to tree, until a cliff could be seen up ahead. I pounced on the next tree branch, my right hand swiftly taking hold of it. Then, I swung myself up and I somersaulted in the air, before my body touched the ground, rolling in the process to dampen the impact.

Regaining my balance, I sprinted towards the cliff like a madman.

Swoosh –

I felt the wind brushed past me, carrying me as I flew. The view of the city could be seen at my vantage point. While down below the cliff, was a dirt road sloping downwards. At it's side, are wooden fences.

I grabbed the wooden plank at my back, then simultaneously whipped it and put it on my soles.

I grinned, feeling excited as adrenaline pumped my body. My wavy brown hair and clothes flapped wildly as I free fall.

My left hand tightly clasped my satchel where Huyana is, securing it in place, while my right hand held the plank.

When the plank and fence is just 5 inches from touching, I slightly tilted the plank in a way that it wouldn't break from the impact.

Bam –

I glide downwards, riding on the plank. "Wooo hooo!"  I feverishly howled, at the same time, Huyana poke out her tiny head from the satchel.

I hopped off my ride when I reached the end of the fence. Then, walked like a normal person would.

------------------

Like usual, the tavern is rowdy with the smelly oafs around. I took up my seat, reserved to me at the counter.

"Ayo, Old Baba." I greeted the old woman. She glared towards me, her wooden spoon of judgement held up, and the lectures about manners would surely soon follow the moment the spoon descended to punish the audacious me.

But before she could do so, I moved much faster, and held Huyana in front of her.

Old Baba's wooden spoon stopped, her attention turned to the cute feline.

"Meow~." Huyana, just right in time, meowed.

'Fufu. Good job, Yana.'

"Hmph!" Old Baba harrumphed, before seizing Huyana from my hands. She cuddled Huyana in her arms, like how she would cuddle her grandchildren.

When I first brought Huyana here, Old Baba had immediately taken a liking to her. She even offered me money in exchange of her. But I refused. How could I sell family, right?

"How have you been, little cat?" Old Baba asked, looking at Huyana. Huyana on the other hand, licked the old woman's fingers, arousing a smile from the stern old woman.

"What? Are you hungry? Do you want milk?"

At the mention of milk, Huyana's tail swung vigorously. I also became enthusiastic at the opportunity to have free milk.

"Me! Me!" I raised my hand. "I want milk!"

But Old Baba ignored my remarks.

"I'll give you lots of milk if you stayed with me, little cat. Don't you want this Old woman to adopt you?"

And, there it was once again. When I declined her offer, she opted for a different approach. Now, she was bribing the little feline.

"Nope. She won't go with you, Old Baba. Our bond is much too strong to break merely because of milk." I crossed my arms, my chin high.

But Huyana acted otherwise, as she became even more excited at Old Baba's offer.

'You traitor!'

"Kuhum! Well, if you want to adopt someone. Then adopt me instead, Old  Baba. You get Yana, you also get a handsome man. What do you say?" I said jokingly.

Old Baba picked her ear, then tilted her head. "Do you hear someone buzzing, little cat?"

"Meow."

"Right? I thought I heard an unmannered brat yapping. Must be my imagination."

"Hmph!" I pouted, feeling wronged at their comments. "Oh, right! Has Gerard been around, Old Baba?"

"Hmm? Gerard? That bright-head?" Old Baba raised an eyebrow. While she poured down milk on a plate, wherein Huyana heartily licked.

I snickered at the moniker she gave to the red haired mercenary. "Right. Him. I haven't seen him in here for the last few days, so I've been wondering where he had gone."

"Must be doing a commissioned job from the guild, I suppose. Why do you ask? Did he extort money from you?"

"Pft… hahahaha!" I clutched my stomach and even kicked with my feet as I guffawed from Old Baba's ridiculous notion.

"Of course not!" I exclaimed, wiping the tears that had formed from laughing too hard. "I'm the one who stole from him last week –" I immediately put my hands on my loose mouth, but I think it was probably too late.

Old Baba squinted her eyes, looking at me suspiciously.

Before she could open her mouth, I clapped my hands. "Right! I was looking for him since I have a favor to ask."

Yes, that's right, favor.

I've finally solve my money problem to make a proper deal to ask assistance for sparring. And I was supposed to ask Gerard since I'm close to him.

And of course. Being as compassionate as I am, I'm going to pay him using his missing money.

Two birds with one stone, right? I get to help him, he gets to help me.

One good deed to another good deed.

Aren't I kind? Fufu.

"Favor? What kind of favor?" Old Baba probe.

"It's a secret, Old Baba. It's a thing between men." I winked at her, which, in turn, threatened me with the upraised wooden spoon.

Bang –

The door of the tavern swung open vigorously!

At the same time, the dreaded wooden spoon vanished from Old Baba's hand, as it flew into the air, and hit the intruder straight in the forehead.

Bonk –

The tall and broad shouldered intruder's head recoiled back. "Aww!" he grunted, rubbing his reddened forehead.

"What's with the dramatic entrance, you blockhead?! Are you trying to break my tavern?!" shouted Old Baba from the counter, while she motioned to the intruder to bring back the spoon.

"No, that was not it, Gran'" replied the man, his fiery red hair is so pronounce he could be identified even from afar.

'Speak of the devil.'

"I have a very big news!" he suddenly barked, attracting the whole attention of the people in the tavern.

"T-the… the crown prince *gulp*" he stammered, his body sweating profusely.

"– the crown prince, what? –" Asked someone from the crowd.

"The crown prince…" he paused dramatically, glancing over the crowd. "… He's dead!"

The boisterous room became deadly silent, and everyone stopped what they were doing.

"…"

Then, immediately after, the crowd bursts out into discordant murmurings.

"– what do you mean dead? –"

"– are you drunk? –"

"– hey, that's not funny, Gerard. You could get executed by saying something like that, you know? –"

"No! You lot! I'm being serious here." Gerard's voice cut in through the clamoring crowd. "This is information that came from the guild! The information has also been verified and currently being circulated within the city!"

The crowd went silent again at his statement. While they looked around at one another, their gaze contained confusion, disbelief, uncertainty.

"– how's that possible? –"

"– this is the crown prince we're talking about. How can he be dead? –"

"– did he have an illness, perhaps? –"

"No. According to the information, they said he was assassinated. Posters of the perpetrator has been spreading around the Kingdom. Cowell however, has just received the news just now."

"– Shit! What's going to happen to the Kingdom now? –"

"– right? –"

"When did this happened?" Old Baba asked.

"From what I heard, Gran', the crown prince's body was found on the morning of the 15th day of the month."

"– 15th day? It's the 25th now. It's been 10 days then. –"

"– why have we only learnt of this now? –"

"– the palace definitely contained the information. But it somehow got leaked. –"

"– Mhm. Definitely. It's the crown prince's death, after all. You can't hide such a thing for too long. –"

The ruffians started conversing, their emotions vary. Some worried, some felt pity, some felt uncertain about the Kingdom's future, while some just didn't give a rat's ass about it.

Soon enough, this same scenario of people talking about this unprecedented news spread throughout the whole of Cowell.

Whatever kind of wave this incident will bring forth to the Kingdom and it's citizens, everyone is certain on one thing…

That the skies of Edowell has become much drearier in this upcoming Winter.