Chapter 6

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“Zairen, as agreed, today I’ll take you to see the rest of the village!” Alivia’s cheerful voice called out. She grabbed Zairen’s hand and started pulling him towards the door.

“Wait! Wait! Not so rough!” Zairen protested as he was dragged outside of the dingy wooden cabin he, Alivia, and Grandpa Dinran lived in.

It was now well into the second week that Zairen had been living with Grandpa Dinran and Alivia. Even though he was somewhat socially active and often chatted for long periods with Alivia and his new grandfather, he still mostly stayed inside his room and focused on training his Silent Shadow art, trying to regain his previous strength.

Finally determined to fix Zairen’s reclusive behavior, Alivia had ordered him to go with her to the village’s central square in order to meet other villagers. Zairen was reluctant, since personally, he wanted to train himself to a certain strength first before going outside. However, Alivia could not take “no” as an answer and forced Zairen to agree to go with her.

Thus, today, Alivia was dragging him out of his room; while walking, she squeezed Zairen’s hand tightly and forcibly yanked him toward the direction of the central square.

Zairen felt Alivia’s hand squashing his own. To his surprise, there was no pain… It was actually mildly comfortable… and warm.

‘This…!” Suddenly, Zairen’s eyes flickered and he showed a bit of a surprised expression. He stared at Alivia carefully.

Alivia didn’t seem to notice Zairen’s strange reaction, and continued to pull him along, happily chatting.

Zairen seemed to be deep in thought; he rubbed his chin with his free hand as he was towed away.

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Bindan village’s central square consisted of a series of streets that connected together to form a large polygonal shape. From an overhead view, it resembled an octagon that was bent sideways.

In the square, hustle and bustle could be seen as tens of street venders were selling their wares, including fresh produce, cooked foods, and other miscellaneous items. A large number of villagers were walking through the square, ether buying things, heading towards different directions, or talking with one another.

Alivia, with Zairen in tow, was currently walking through rows of fruit and vegetable stands. She talked nonstop, informing Zairen about the many different villagers.

“Near our age, I often talk to Karen, Telan, and Rudy, who are aged seven, nine, and ten, respectively.” Alivia described.

She racked her mind, trying to detect any people she had not mentioned.

“…oh yeah. There’s also Finn, who’s eight years old, and is the village governor’s son.” She said. “He’s really irritating . For some reason, he always likes to follow me around.”

Zairen raised his eyebrows.

“Alivia! Hey Alivia!” A bratty-sounding voice suddenly resounded.

Alivia and Zairen stopped in their tracks and looked over.

Directly to their right, a chubby looking eight-year-old boy was running out of the stream of passing villagers, frantically waving his hand. “Alivia! Alivia!”

Hearing the shouting boy’s voice, Alivia scowled slightly and muttered in a low voice. “Speaking of the devil. That’s Finn right there; looks like he wants to follow me around again.”

“Hello Finn.” She spoke out loud, as she looked towards the boy.

Finn had blue colored hair and a childish-looking face. He was short, only an inch taller than Zairen, and when he ran, his disproportionate body bobbed back and forth.

He ran to Alivia, stopping just a few meters in front of her.

“Alivia! Great, I finally found you! Let’s…” Finn’s voice cracked as he saw Zairen, who was standing directly next to Alivia.

“Hello, Finn.” Zairen stepped forward, taking the initiative to introduce himself. “My name is Zairen. It’s my first time here; nice to meet you.” He outstretched his hand, looking to shake hands.

Finn glanced at Zairen’s hand and snorted. “Zairen? What a stupid-sounding name.”

“…”

Zairen was mildly surprised; he had not expected Finn to insult him right off the bat.

However, having lived for twenty seven years, Zairen found that he couldn’t care less about this kind of an insult, especially coming from a bratty little kid. He silently brought his outstretched arm back to his side.

Although Zairen was calm, Alivia was clearly irritated. She suddenly spoke out: “Finn, is there something you need? Zairen and I are…”

“What?” Finn’s screechy voice interrupted. “Where are you going with this guy?! Alivia, you promised to hang out with me!!!”

Alivia furrowed her brows in annoyance. “I never promised anything like that.”

“Yes you did! You totally did!” Finn pouted. “You promised me!!!”

It was clear that Alivia was tired of Finn’s whining, and she grabbed Zairen’s hand, starting to pull him in the opposite direction. “I absolutely did not. Well Finn, I’m busy today, so…”

“Stop!” Finn yelled. He pointed towards Zairen. “Who is this guy? Why haven’t I seen him before?!”

But Alivia had already ran off, pulling Zairen with her.

“Gah!!!” Finn had an ugly expression on his face. He watched as Alivia and Zairen’s figures disappeared in the sea of villagers around him.

He considered chasing after them, but very quickly decided not to. He wouldn’t be able to catch up to them anyway. Eventually, he turned around and trotted his way back to his home.

His day was ruined.

———————

Meanwhile, hurrying away from Finn, Alivia was scowling.

“Man, that guy annoys me so much!” She groaned. “Little brother… I’m really sorry about that.”

“Don’t worry about it.” Zairen laughed as he ran with her. “But, I’m curious, why don’t you just tell him to leave you alone?

Hearing that question, Alivia was silent. She seemed reluctant to answer.

“That… well.” Alivia spoke, then sighed. “I don’t do that… because he’s the governor’s son. If I reject him harshly, he could tell his dad, and his dad could do something bad. My grandfather and I don’t have a very good financial situation, after all.”

Zairen frowned. Even though he had stayed with Alivia and Grandpa Dinran for a few days already, he was not aware that they had such a bad financial situation.

———————

Seeing that Finn had not followed them, Zairen and Alivia slowed down their steps and started walking at a leisurely pace.

As they walked deeper into the central square, they passed several big stands selling food, as well as a large restaurant. Soon enough, they were nearing the center of the square.

“Bindan village is pretty big, huh?” Zairen mused. “There are so many stands.”

Alivia giggled. “Yup! No other village around has as expansive a marketplace as we do. Many people from neighboring villages often come to check our wares!”

They continued to chat as they approached the center of the square. Small vendors seemed to be getting less and less common, replaced by large stores and restaurants.

Gradually, in front of them appeared a large, open arena.

The arena was a large circular platform, made of stone, that spanned about twenty meters in diameter.

“Hm…” Zairen whispered. He was curious about what he was seeing.

On the platform, there were currently two muscular men who were circling around each other, apparently trying to find openings to attack. Around the large circular arena, tens of people gathered, jeering loudly.

Loud noises rang out as the two big men suddenly threw fists at each other, while cheers exploded out from the sidelines.

As Alivia and Zairen neared the large arena, Zairen watched the fight happening on stage curiously. He observed the two men’s movements.

Soon enough, after a few heavy exchanges, one man sunk a fierce punch into the other man’s gut and knocked him out. Some people cheered while other people groaned.

“Winner: Komanji!” A middle-aged man walked onto the large platform and declared the winner.

There was a flurry of movement as some excitedly cheering men in the sidelines ran up to some men who seemed to be running the arena. Those cheering men received some coins. Clearly, they had bet money on Komanji winning.

Zairen couldn’t help but frown. Those two men’s movements really were too big and inefficient. With those kinds of big movements, Zairen was confident he could easily beat two Komanji’s at once, even in his current state.

“Interested in the Bindan Arena?” Alivia giggled. She had been watching Zairen stare at the fight on the large fighting stage.

“Yeah,” Zairen replied. “How do the fights work?”

“The Bindan Arena is where the strongest fighters in Bindan village come to compete!” Alivia chimed. “Competitors fight one-on-one fights, and the first person who passes out, falls off the platform, or concedes loses. Fighters in the arena can win large monetary prizes, and a lot of people like to place bets on who will win each fight. It’s really an amazing atmosphere!”

“Oh, that’s cool,” Zairen said calmly. He wasn’t really interested in watching fights of this low caliber, but those large monetary prizes sounded pretty inviting…

“We can come back later to watch another brawl.” Alivia grabbed Zairen’s arm. “Before that, let’s go see Grandpa Dinran’s shop!”

Saying that, Alivia pulled Zairen away from the Bindan Arena, turning left and heading towards the far end of the village square.

After walking for a few minutes, they reached an area of the central square that contained less people. Only about a fourth of the people walking around in the center of the square could be seen walking around in this area. There were also fewer stands, and they seemed to sell more specialized goods.

As the two walked through this area, they passed many different stands selling wooden sculptures, colorful robes, or flowers.

“Hey, it’s grandpa!” Alivia smiled. She caught sight of the person she was looking for. Zairen smiled as well as he also noticed the same person.

About twenty meters ahead of them, a familiar old man was sitting behind a stand that sold a variety of herbs and medicines.

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