Fynn, Hope and Adhara were walking down a wide path, moving towards the official building that the villagers had guided them to. They looked around at the sparse stretch of land, only small houses and even smaller shops visible by the road.

“Why aren’t there any big merchants here?” Hope asked no one in particular.

“It is quite strange.” Fynn nodded, looking at Hope who was approaching a little shop on the side of the road.

The shop contained grains of many kinds, separated and kept in different coloured sacks at the front. Behind the sacks, a small child was sitting with his legs folded, concentrating on shaving off a piece of wood with a small knife. He slowly and meticulously shaved the wood, giving it the shape he desired. The child’s small hands moved with energy and focus, showing his familiarity with the craft. He was surrounded by many such blocks of wood and behind him was a row of little figurines, all sharing almost the same features.

“What are you doing, commoner?” Hope asked while leaning her hands on her knees. She was looking curiously at the small piece of wood slowly taking a shape.

Fynn slapped the back of her head at her remark. “When will you leave this habit of yours? Mother really had a bad influence on you.”

“Then what am I supposed to call him?” Hope winced, rubbing her head with one hand and trying to hit Fynn with the other.

“Just call him a child. You don’t need to address every stranger as commoner and Minor Noble.” Fynn said.

While the twins were bickering with each other, Adhara was just standing to the side and looking at the child carving the piece of wood. Her eyes moved with his hands’ movements, her lips revealing a very minute smile as she remembered a sweet memory of her and an old man. A memory where she and the old man would sit in his room after the old man had tended to her injuries and he would teach her how to carve small figures from wood.

“Do you want to buy something?” The child asked, his eyes still fixated on the wood in his hand.

Hope frowned at his words. She was a High Noble and the child in front of her was just a peasant. Yet he dared to talk to her in a condescending manner.

“Haven’t we wasted a lot of time already?” Adhara spoke from the side, her face going as still as the serene night sky. “The other teams might already have the information needed.”

Fynn nodded, but as he was going to say something, Hope chimed in from the side.

“Is there something wrong with the air in this village? Why are the peasants talking without asking our permission first?”

Fynn frowned and his expression became ugly as soon as he heard it. “Hope! She is our teammate!”

“Your teammate. I never agreed to it.” Hope said, turning around and walking away.

Fynn felt helpless looking at his twin sister acting in such a way. She hated how she had learned every deplorable thing from their mother and failed to learn from their father. He looked at Adara with apologetic eyes but found Adhara shaking her head.

“There’s no need. She doesn’t like me for what happened in the third trial. You don’t need to apologise on her behalf. You need not worry for I will prioritise the mission over such squabbles,” She said.

Fynn felt thankful for how mature Adhara was. He sighed, regretting all those times when he could have taken Hope away from the environment in the family.

“You should take care, child,” Adhara said to the kid, who seemed younger than nine. He was still focusing on the wood that had started to take the shape of a woman. “She is a High Noble. Insulting them is punishable by death.”

The kid looked up for the first time. His eyes seemed lifeless, his face containing dry wrinkles and his cheeks sunken in.

“If death is all that has to come, why does it matter that I die after insulting someone or by waiting here?” The kid said, “If you don’t want to buy grains, then go somewhere else and stop disturbing me.”

Adhara didn’t react but kept staring at the lifeless eyes of the child. They reminded her of herself a couple of years ago. The eyes that didn’t look forward to the future, the tiredness and lethargy in them, and the pain of waiting.

‘Is that how I looked to the old man?’ Adhara reminisced.

She turned to look at Fynn who was waiting for her to join him. “Go ahead with Hope and collect the relevant information. I shall come to you in a while.”

Fynn nodded, glancing at the kid before going towards the official building.

“How much for the figurines?” Adhara asked the kid, her eyes on the row of figurines behind him.

“They are not for sale.” The kid replied curtly.

“Well, the woman portrayed in them sure looks beautiful,” Adhara said.

The kid’s hands stopped as he glanced at Adhara for a moment but went back to shaving the wood again without any word.

“I also used to sculpt a lot. It was one of the things that I still find comforting.” Adhara said while picking up a block of wood from the side. “Can I try?”

The child nodded.

Adhara made a small knife out of mana and started giving shape to the block of wood. She was much faster than the kid, which gave him a shock as he looked at Adhara rapidly carving out a little flower from the wood. Adhara had also noticed the child looking at her with wide eyes, surprised by the view. She slowed down to take her time and asked the kid a basic question.

“What’s your name?”

The kid’s body jerked at the sudden interjection with the question. He looked flustered as if he had been caught stealing something.

“They all call me brat.” The kid answered after calming down for a moment.

“Sure, you’re a brat but what’s your real name?” Adhara asked.

“I don’t remember.” The kid replied, his eyes and hands going back to work.

Adhara looked at the kid, not understanding what he meant by not remembering his name. However, she didn’t push it too much, realising the reluctance of the kid. So, they both sat together and carved the wood for a while without talking to each other.

“Here’s a flower for you,” Adhara said after a while, as soon as her carving had finished.

The kid took the flower and kept it by his side. He touched it and looked at it for a few moments, several emotions knocking in his eyes but none staying for too long.

“Who’s the woman you’re trying to sculpt?” Adhara asked in a soft voice.

The kid hesitated for a moment but then answered as he looked at the flower that Adhara had given him, “My mother.”

Adhara noticed the figurines behind him had an order to them, arranged from the oldest to the newest. The faces of the figurines went more polished as time had passed, due to the consistency and the hard work of the kid.

“Do you want to give them to your mother when you’re able to sculpt her perfectly?”

“Someday, perhaps. If I still remember her face.” The kid answered, lost in his own thoughts.

Adhara was going to continue the conversation when she noticed something approaching from a distance. Fynn also appeared by her side, a testament to the range of his perception. He had noticed the approaching danger way before Adhara did.

Adhara noticed an unfamiliar man standing behind Fynn. He was quite well dressed and appeared to be young, probably in his early twenties. Adhara looked for Hope but couldn’t find her anywhere. She stopped thinking about Hope and split her focus between the approaching danger and the kid behind her.

There was a torrent of mana approaching from a distance, wild like a beast and unafraid of any provocation. The person controlling mana seemed insanely arrogant, seemingly challenging everyone as if saying, ‘Yeah, I’m here. What can you do?’

Something was launched from within the torrent of mana. There was a noise. It might have been someone’s screaming or the wind’s retching as it was torn apart by the heavy projectile. Fynn’s eyes narrowed as he realised what the projectile was, but became bewildered when he saw the carriage along with it.

“Is that…” Fynn’s mouth formed some words.

“Mehr’s spear.” Adhara finished. Her eyes gave off a chilling light. She didn’t imagine Mehr would be insane enough to attack them so soon into the mission. In her impression, while Mehr was a tremendously arrogant lunatic, he still lived within reason. The only times where he did something out of ordinary was when Sirius was involved. She also didn’t understand what Mehr would gain from attacking Fynn and her together. As per her, there was simply no way that Mehr could possibly win against both of them together.

As her thoughts rang high, the spear with a carriage attached was approaching them. However, it didn’t attack them. Rather, it fell a safe distance away from them, blasting the surrounding gravel from the road. All the people around, Fynn and others, the villagers and the people from the official building were looking at the blast when they heard the noise. The scene soon became clear as their eyes fell on a spear, stabbed in the ground, going through a corpse of a woman in the garbs of a junior official.

The young man standing close to Fynn turned livid. He looked at the corpse, and raised his voice as he said, “Who dares to touch a junior official of the village?”

The villagers, whose faces had lightened up after seeing the corpse of a junior official, quietened down. Fear and disgust were apparent on their faces as they looked at the well dressed young man.

Many things happened at once. Adhara noticed the kid behind her move towards the young man. She also saw Mehr, who was running towards them like a deranged beast, had come extremely close to them. She turned around, trusting that Fynn would be able to stop Mehr, and looked at the kid. The kid was holding his carving knife tightly in his hand, his eyes bloody with the reflection of murder as he looked at the well dressed young man. He slowly inched closer and pounced at the young man, trying to stab his heart.

Adhara moved instantly. She grabbed the kid’s hand and pulled him towards her. In that very instant, Fynn had activated his Heavens’ Gift. He was standing studded in gold, his eyes sparkling as divine armour slowly took shape on his body. His entire body was covered with armour with golden scales, making him look like the legendary warriors who fought beside the Gods.

As soon as Fynn had activated his armour, Mehr had ended up right in front of him. However, he did not attack anyone but asked a simple and straightforward question to the well dressed young man.

“Are you The Official?” His voice was heard by everyone present in the vicinity. Their eyes moved to The Official, waiting for his answer. However, before his answer could be heard, another voice trampled on the silent environment.

“Give me my mother back!!” The kid shrieked in a high pitched voice, looking as if he had lost his mind due to the events unfolding. Fynn and Adhara looked at the kid and the well dressed young man in his line of sight. They couldn’t understand the reason why the kid would ask The Official to give his mother back.

“That answers my question,” Mehr replied nonchalantly. He swiped his hand in front of Fynn’s face that instantly lost its colours. Fynn hurriedly riled up his mana to defend the impact, but it never came.

Thud.

Fynn turned around, hearing the soft thud behind him and looked at the headless body of The Official. He was going to turn around and attack Mehr to force an explanation out of him. However, a soft voice called him out.

“Fynn!” Hope said, standing in front of the main entrance of the official building. She was trembling, trying to control her urge but failed to do so. She threw up on the stairs, as everyone was watching but she didn’t care enough right now. As soon as she was done throwing up, she looked at Fynn again. There were tears in her eyes and sweat on her palms. She wanted to forget the scenes she had seen, haunted by her own curiosity.

She wanted to tell everyone what the official building was hiding within its wretched depths but no words came out of her mouth.

“Stay here kid, we’ll bring your mother out,” Mehr said as he passed all of them and went towards the building. He turned around when he felt no one following him. He looked at Adhara and Fynn, gave a half-smile as if mocking them and said, “Do you want me to carry you, kids?”