Year 768 of the Journey Calendar, Sunday, 29th of March, in the small town of Afaik.

"Leo, come to the living room." Fernas called for Leo.

"Yes, father." Leo came, with an absolutely expressionless face.

"You heard what we said right?" Fernas asked about the discussion that happened in his room.

Leo stayed silent.

"Haa... Leo, listen, this is important." said Fernas as he sat down on a chair, Leo sat down too.

"Your father needs to go out for a bit, one month or so and he'll be back, alright?" Fernas said to Leo as he patted his son's shoulder.

"You'll be back, right?" asked Leo, still expressionless.

"I will, I promise." responded Fernas, with a dignified expression.

"You better be!" said Leo, he couldn't hold it in anymore, as he broke down, tearing up, and hugging his father.

"Haa... this kid, he's really something else..." thought Fernas as he wrapped his arms around his son and hugged him back.

After this, they separated to finish up their day and go to sleep.

The same night, at another part of the kingdom, a bit far away from Leo's residence, though not too much.

"These rats are everywhere! What the hell!" said one man in his residence, he went to grab a broom to shoo them away.

One rat he was following entered a small hole and the man burst the wood around that hole by accident, the sight he was greeted with was not a pleasant one.

"What the hell is this..." thought the man as he looked with absolute shock.

A dead pile of rats, so many of them one couldn't count them from one look, it was a disgusting sight, many of the rats were still fidgeting as if it was their last breath of life, then they stopped moving as their life left them.

"Nasty rats! I've got to call the guards, this is not normal!" he thought, as he went to call any guards around his area.

"You called us for a bunch of dead rats?" said the guards that came for his calling, annoyed at what they were called for.

"This is not normal do you not see this?! Have you ever seen such a big pile of dead rats?! I know I haven't!" said the man, annoyed at how the guards handled the situation.

"Alright old man, here, we'll pick up these rats and drop them in the trash for you, you happy now?" as they started picking up the rats.

"Damn guards... they never think of what might've caused this... meh... Why do I care!" thought the man, as he watched the guards pick up the rats, and afterwards when they were done, went to sleep.

The next day...

Leo woke up as usual, although this time, his father wasn't calling for him to go eat and start exercising.

He went to see his mother and saw her sitting down, a bit sad, although when she saw Leo, her face cheered up quickly.

"Stay strong, Sina! You've got Leo to take care of, if no one is going to stay strong in this family, who will?!" she thought to herself as she slapped both her cheeks with her hands.

"Leo, breakfast is ready, go eat and as usual, get to your training!" she said with a bit of enthusiasm to Leo.

"Mother, where is father?" asked Leo, avoiding her previous instructions.

"Your father already left, now do as I said, what, are you now ignoring your mother?!" insisted Sina.

"Okay.. Okay..." Leo replied, as he went to do his usual daily routine, he ate his breakfast, and went to exercising.

The same day, the guards of the northern area, where the man who encountered the pile of dead rats resided, received many reports from citizens informing them they found a dead pile of rats of their own at their own residence or areas around them.

The captain of the guards found this to be alarming, and decided to inform the higher ups of these developments.

At the mayor of the northern area's house...

"Reporting to sir! The captain of the guards of the northern area, has said that he has received multiple reports of large piles of dead rats, and feels there is something behind this! He awaits your orders, sir!"

"And I thought this was serious... You call me, and for what, to report a bunch of dead rats?! Get the hell out of my face! We have a battle with the hope of the kingdom solely relying on that!"

The mayor quickly dismissed this as they had more important matters to tend to and keep up with, he couldn't care less for a spike in the deaths of rats.

The messenger of the mayor's house quickly informed the captain of the guards of the mayor's remarks on this situation.

"Just deal with them like the usual, and don't mind the mayor, he's just had a a few bad days." said the messenger, as he left.

"Oh, well, I guess that's that, just deal with the rats like usual boys." He said to his guards, after he received the response from the messenger, a bit pissed off at the mayor's attitude.

For the next few days, the kept receiving continuous reports of large piles of dead rats, one of the reports was the straw that broke the camel's back, as the captain of the guards shouted with fury, "What the hell is this! Get an investigating team gathered instantly, don't talk to the higher ups, those idiots are focused on their battle!" he said, sending orders like that without consulting the higher ups was breaking protocol, and he would lose his job for this, but he prioritized his intuition over the consulting of higher ups in this situation.

An investigating team was gathered instantly with a bunch of doctors to investigate the cause of the death of these rats.

They got a sample of the dead rats and sent them over to the doctors, afterwards, while the doctors when dissecting the corpses to see what might've happened, one of the doctors said, "This... their internal organs had a bunch of tumors all over, this didn't happen over time, this was an accelerated process!" as he stood back in shock.

"This is a disease that's spreading very quickly among the rats!" shouted one of the other doctors who based his deduction on the previous remark.

"Are you sure about what you said?" said another doctor who was in the investigating team that was gathered, "No, I'm not! And I don't have time to check if I'm sure! Let's get to it already!" replied the previous doctor.

"Alright, alright! Hey! report this to your captain, 'The cause of death is a contagious disease that is incredibly lethal, kills within two weeks according to how fast these rats died, we're still investigating its ability to spread to humans', also call all nearby doctors! now go!" said one of the doctors to the guard that was standing nearby.

"Yes, sir!" replied the guard as he dashed, running towards the base of the guards.

"Reporting to captain! The investigating team have found out that the cause of the death of these rats was a contagious disease that is incredibly lethal, and kills within two weeks!" the guard reported.

"Does it spread to humans?!" the captain said, slamming the handle of the chair he was sitting on with fury.

"Yes, captain! Regarding that, they're still investigating it!" He replied.

"Then what are you waiting for?! Go get back there, and bring me all the news as quickly as you can!" said the captain.

"Yes sir!" Replied the guard as he dashed off back to the investigation area.

"Damn mayor! You don't know sh**! While you're focusing on that lovely battle of yours, a disease like this was spreading!" shouted the captain with fury, destroying a bunch of furniture in the room he was in, "Let's hope it doesn't spread to humans..." he thought. The guards outside the room were thanking the Lord they weren't inside while all of this was happening.

Going back a four days before this all happened, the 1st of April, Leo was exercising when his mother came out of the household, "Leo, I'll be going away to help some patients of mine, I'll be back in two or three days, I've prepared bread and some other stuff in advance so don't worry about that! I'll see you later, honey!" although this was a risky action, leaving a six-year-old in a house by himself for three days, Leo was intelligent enough to handle himself and the house. Although this was a tough decision for Sina, she had to go out in order to bring some income for the house to prepare for the next month.

She then hugged Leo and left the house, Leo was now alone in his house, no one being there for him, he felt a bit lonely, but he knew that his mother was on an important job, so he toughened up and went back to training.

Later that day, after he finished exercising, he wanted to play outside, but was reminded that the household was empty with no one else but him to watch it, so he held back on that, feeling a bit sad that he couldn't join Gabriel and the other kids in playing football.

The next day was the same, his mother hadn't come back, he couldn't go outside, and all he had was free time, so he continued meditating and pondering about the energy that inhabited the air.

The next day came, and later that day, after he was done with his exercising and meditating, he was reading a book, when someone knocked on the door, Leo was excited, as he thought it was his mother, but when he opened the door, it wasn't his mother, but rather, Gabriel!

Although a bit disappointed it wasn't his mother, he still was happy to see someone familiar after two days of solitude.

"Gabriel! You're here, haha!" said Leo to Gabriel as he brought him inside the house.

"Yeah, it's been a while." said Gabriel to Leo as he went inside.

"How do you know where I live, by the way?" asked Leo.

"Oh, since you play near your house, I always see you looking towards a certain house, so I figured that might be your house." replied Gabriel, Leo nodded to that.

"Never mind that, where have you been for the past two days? You said you'd see me tomorrow, but you've been gone, man." added Gabriel.

"Oh... Uh.. my father went away on battle duty, and my mother left two days ago to tend to her patients, so nobody was there to watch the house while they were gone but me, so I figured I'd stay while they were out." answered Leo.

"Oh, your father went out to the battle? Mine too... it was a bit sad but he promised me to return so I don't worry too much about that." said Gabriel, after he heard Leo's response.

"So you're alone now, and won't be playing until your parents return huh... Well, how about this, I'll be coming every day at 4:00 PM to talk since you're lonely all day, yeah?" suggested Gabriel.

"Really?! Can you really do that?" said Leo, excited as he didn't have to spend the next days by himself.

"Yes, don't worry man, we're best friends, yeah?" replied Gabriel, they talked about a bunch of stuff when they arrived upon a certain topic.

"Wait, can you repeat that again...?" said Gabriel to Leo.

"I'm six years old, man! What the hell! How old are you?" replied Leo.

They realized they hadn't asked each other about their ages, however when Gabriel heard Leo's response, he was taken aback.

Gabriel blinked a few times at Leo's response, "You're lying! There's no way someone with your age has a body like yours!" said Gabriel, refusing to believe Leo's words.

"I really am six years old, Gabriel, what the hell?!" Leo replied, a bit annoyed that Gabriel didn't believe him.

"Hmph! We'll see when your mother comes back, I'll ask her how old you are, and she'll tell me the truth, hehe." Gabriel said.

"Anyways, I'm nine years old, Haa... I still don't believe you're six years old, Leo!" added Gabriel.

"Okay, Okay! You'll see when my mother returns!" said Leo to Gabriel, now fully annoyed that Gabriel doesn't believe him.

They continued chatting until Gabriel left the household, because it was reaching 9:00 PM at night.

"Later, Leo, I'll come back tomorrow!" said Gabriel to Leo.

"Byeeee!" replied Leo, closing the door, and going outside to the area where he trains, as he laid down, facing the sky and thought, "I wonder if mother will return tomorrow, or if she's going to stay late at work like the usual...".