I was immediately lead into a large building, and through multiple long hallways and a few elevators. After the literal release of hell, Sühama was one of the few cities left with a sustainable power source. Even then, Sühama was the only city with a reliable source. After a while of walking, Cana running around us with her seemingly endless amount of energy, we stopped at a set of large, red double doors where the man told me to enter.
I carefully pushed them aside, stepping through into a large room with full bookshelves along the walls, and a single desk in the back with someone sitting there. He was too far away at first to see any details, but I could he looked up when I had entered the room.
"Who are you?"
"Umm..." I looked down, my five companions looking up at me, offering some support. I took a deep breath and asked, "Are you Joshua Torrent?"
"No, I'm Isiah."
"Well I'm looking for Joshua, it has something to do with his family?"
"What about them?"
Figuring he was going to be like the last person, I cut to the chase, "I was told he was my uncle. My parents died during the first fires, and someone who survived them from the same village found me and said he knew my father, and that his brother was named Joshua Torrent and lived in Sühama."
The man stood up from his chair, and began walking over, "your father was Winston? Winston Torrent?"
I nodded, watching as he came closer. I then began to notice more of his facial features, green eyes, brown hair, a dash of freckles on his face. He was really tall, broad shoulders, a bit chubby above his pants line where his shirt was tucked in. He wasn't wearing anything too formal, just a plain white button-up shirt with black pants. His tie was loosed around his neck, the patters being red Marks, different little symbols that didn't really have any meaning. He towered over me, and Tunstall stepped forward this time, growling lowly.
"What's your name?"
"I, uh, don't have one. I was born around the time of the fires, I don't know how I survived."
"Come, sit down, we have a lot of things to talk about," he said, leading me over to his desk on the other side of the room. Tunstall backed down, and the five followed behind me, although Cana kept making circles around us.
"So, do you know Joshua Torrent?"
"You're looking at him. I go by Isiah as more of a code name. We don't want the public knowing my actual name, just in case the organization does something that they don't quite approve of, and they try to attack me, since I'm the head master."
"Makes sense," I said, staring at him.
"So why are you out here? The village is all the way down outside Lüm!" I took a seat in the chair across from his desk, watching as he took a seat at his desk, moving some papers around.
"The village was destroyed, I had no other family, so I travelled here."
"Who took you?"
"I mostly walked," I replied honestly, "there was a couple times where I was able to get a couple rides from merchants, but they were traveling to other cities."
He looked up at me, a stunned look on his face, "wait, let me get this straight. You walked all the way from south Lüm to Sühama just to find me?"
"Yes, sir."
"What about at night? How did you not get attacked?"
"I wouldn't sleep until morning, and then I would walk until the next morning. Sometimes I had to travel through the woods because of demon attacks on villages, and I learned to avoid them when that happens."
"What happens?" He was tapping at his desk, a faint light glowing from it. I didn't know what he was doing, but I still replied.
"Most of them will blame it on the next person to visit the village. I made the same mistake recently, I hadn't heard that they were attacked, and so they blamed it on me, and were going to hang me."
"Hang?" He urgently tapped his desk again, and I saw Cana snap her head back behind us. I had a weird feeling, and was once again, able to hear more than I should. There were people shuffling behind the door, murmurs of conversation I couldn't make out happening.
I muttered to him, "if you think that's weird, that's not all." He hummed at me, narrowing his eyes at me. I explained, "I don't know what happened, but the village leader's hounds actually stopped the execution, a-and the man cut his bond because of their 'betrayal.'"
The door opened behind me as he spoke, "what?"
"I don't know why-"
"Someone else's hounds saved you? When their master was blaming the attack on you..." He sighed, "you've been through a lot haven't you?"
"Sir, you wanted me?" Some lady behind me asked, before screaming as Cana went up to sniff her.
"Cana!" I whispered at her, and she whimpered before retreating back to me.
"What are those things!?" She screeched, backing up towards the doors.
"They're crossbreeds between hounds and wolves. I picked them up in Yüblin to fend off demons and bandits."
"You should have just hired an escort with a Mark, crossbreeds are worthless," Joshua remarked, staring down at them. The snarled, forming a protective circle around me once again.
I defended them, "no they're not! They attacked one demon on the road, and none of the others would come near us after that!"
"They attacked a demon? How?"
"Ulric leapt at it while Tunstall-" Tunstall and Ulric turned and growled at me, ears lowered, and a look of fear in their eyes. The other three had the same look, none of them wanting me to tell. I went silent, confused as to why they were expressing this to me.
"Listen, kid. I think you just need to sleep. Patty, take him to one of my guest rooms. We can talk more tomorrow." With that, the lady behind me waited for me to get up, and she lead me out of the room.
Making our way out of the building, we waited outside for a little bit for a vehicle, and I was a little excited. I had only seen a few on my way in, but because not many can afford them, no one outside really ever sees them. It wasn't long before a long, black, shiny metal box came by, with two wheels on each side. 'Patty' opened the door, and stepped to the side, and my wolves quickly jumped in. Ulric was polite and waited for me to go before following close behind, sitting next to me while the rest lied down in various places. Patty sat up front with the operator of the vehicle, and as soon as her door closed, we began moving.
It was fast, and I watched as people flew by, and not long afterward, we stopped in front of a large house in the middle of the city. It was gray with white trimming, and Patty opened the door for me to get out.
Seeing as my so-called uncle's house was huge, I began wondering what exactly it meant to be the head master for the MO.
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