Prologue: The boy, the letter & Aurora

Night

The sky is clear and the light from the stars and the two moons that illuminate the forest can’t reach the ground, the treetops are dense enough to do that. Below this sea of leaves, in the darkness

*Step, step*

“(!!)”

“(This presence…a black… No! a Red deer!! Nice! The perfect meal for tomorrows anniversary! Not gonna let it scape)”

A boy that was enjoying a nightwalk sensed the little presence 50 meters away from his location and changed his night stroll into a red deer hunt. With impetus but silently, the boy reached a tree that gave him coverage but when he tried to have a better look of his prey…

*crack*

“(oh shit!)” (boy)

(!!) (Red deer)

The Red deer started to escape into the darkness and his hunter…

“Ah…there goes a quick catch…silly me...but this is certainly more fun!!!”

The boy was grinning, his insticts were burning as a red deer was a rare encounter, and so he dashed in pursuit of his prey starting another long and night hunt.

In a small cabin in the same forest

The time now is sunrise

“Father! Happy anniversary! Look what I caught, a Red deer!! I’m going to skin it and prepare a feast!!”

The boy was happy, he wanted to present something to his parent this special day, the 13th of Chaos, the day the boy would be 18 years old, or at least that was what it should have been

“Strange…father didn’t came running? Even thought the Red deer is one of his favourites…”

As he waited for some response from his father, he noted some objects on the table in the small living room, so he went, sat on one of the three wooden stools around it and took them. With a little observation, the objects were two letters and a small leather pouch, when he inspected the letters one was addresed to him and the other not, so he opened the one that was for him

The letter read

To my son, Lean

Hello there Lean, Happy anniversary!! You finally are 18 years old and it’s a shame i can’t spend this joyous day with you but something came up, so i went on a little journey…

But enough of me! The matter at hand is your anniversary!! Lean, you are 18 years old so I think it's time you experience a little of the world outside of the forest, for that purpose I’m sending you to Veritas, in that place you will have a fun experience I'm sure! If you dont like it, you can do whatever you want, you are responsible from now and onward for your actions!

But I suggest to follow my advice, as you don't have experience outside of the forest…you will learn a thing or two there about how society or the world works, and don't worry! An acquaintance of mine will come to pick you up later today, she is called Aurora, a very beautiful woman (try to put your hands on her *thumps up*).

To prepare for this new journey you will only need the money I left you and anything you deem indispensable of your room, so take anything that fits that criteria, and after that, burn the cabin down! Use THAT to do it, and you better do it good!

IMPORTANT NOTE: You damn rascal, you have a Red deer to stuff yourself so you better enjoy it!!

Let's meet again in the future Lean and enjoy a proper feast!

Take care!

Dad a better hunter than you.

As he finished reading a furrow appeared on his forehead

“What the hell…going out? Veritas? Picked up by an acquaintance? Aurora? AND YOU JUST WAIT I'M GONNA BE A BETTER HUNTER THAN YOU IN NO TIME!!”

*deep breath*

“Okay, first thing first, let's get my luggage and prepare to receive this new guest!”

Lean then went to his room, took three books, a small dagger in its sheath and a small wooden box. With that and the little pouch that had some weight he had everything he needed to take off, but suddenly, Lean started to feel that the mana outside was strange, he left the cabin and as he was coming out he felt a strong disturbance growing in the mana flow not so distant from his position

*spark spark*

*ZAAAAAAAAS*

With a loud noise a light exploded bathing everything in white, blinding Lean in the process. When he regained his eyesight what stood there to his surprise…a woman.

“Yare, yare… that Reidmo I'm gonna get him for this favor, mm?”

“(Hou…so this is Reidmo’s child...)”

The woman started to evaluate the boy in front of her, an average height at 172 cm, his hair was messy of a fiery auburn color, his eyes were of the same mix as the hair and with his face it gave him a wild look. As he was wearing a body vest his arms were exposed showing that he packed some muscle despite his slender build.

When Lean broke out of his blinded state, he started eyeing his first visitor in the 18 years that he had lived in the forest. A woman with golden and wavy hair that reached her shoulders, slightly taller than him, her face was diamond shaped and her eyes were big, round and emerald colored. Her small lips and nose give her a rather childlike look but the body refutes that as she has the body of a mature woman with rather nice curves. In short, a stunning beauty had appeared from nowhere!

A short silence were the two figures were gazing eachother was broken by a sudden outburst of the boy, as he seemed to remember something

“OH! Incredible! What was that? How did you appear from nowhere? Are you Aurora? Father left a letter for you! Here it is!”

To the sudden barrage of questions, the woman was caught off guard, but relaxing in the next moment smiled gently and answered him

“You must be Lean…you look like your father some years ago. Nice to meet you, as you have guessed I’m Aurora Mcfiel an aquitance of him”

While making her introduction Aurora extended her left hand so Lean extended his, and with a firm grip, they exchanged a handshake

“The pleasure is mine! But how did you appear from nowhere? That was amazing! Was that magic? Can i do that too?”

Lean was amazed in a scale that knew no bounds, he had a very keen sense to perceive mana, and in the forest that he lived, daily would he sense different phenoms but none of them, if any, would catch his attention as Aurora did

*giggle giggle*

“(Like a child) that's right, what I did to arrive here was a magic called [Warp], but it's a rather high tier magic so you won't be warping anytime soon”

“Oh…well no biggie. Ah! thats right!! Here Aurora read this! My father wrote something to you in this letter”

“(He sure did move on fast from being unable to do Warp) Okay, lets see what Reidmo wants me to know”

To Aurora

Sorry for this sudden request (like really, this was sudden), I will leave my son in your care so please prepare him a little before the new cycle begins in Veritas, he really knows nothing outside of Cercantes. With this, consider your debt repaid greenhorn!

Reidmo the cloacked hunter that saved some greenhorns.

“(Well..this guy sure knows how to poke where it hurts, but if its only this much it's gonna be an easy assignment. Even so…greenhorn uh? This sure brings back some memories...)”

As Aurora read the letter and wandered in thoughts Lean stared intently at Aurora, which felt his gaze as if a predator does to his prey before attacking and it made her uncomfortable

“I-It’s something wrong?”

“No, nothing of the sorts, just that my father told me to ‘try to put my hands on you’ and I was thinking ‘why would he ask me to do that?’ but seeing that you are such a beautiful woman I can see the reason behind that”

He was making a face of ‘I have understood everything’

“(NO! YOU DON’T! YOU HAVEN’T UNDERSTOOD ANYTHING!! He only wanted to annoy me!)”

Aurora felt like screaming that but against the honest eyes and serious explanation of Lean changed her toughts midway

*giggle giggle*

“Am I such a beautiful person?? Do-you-really-mean-that??”

When she was probing Lean, she leaned her body slighly forward while pushing with her left arm her breasts and with her right index finger touching her small pink lips in a provocative manner

“Well…I have little experience with women, but im 100% sure that you are a beautiful”

Lean was oblivious (and inmune) to Aurora’s small act and answered again with his pure toughts, Aurora realizing that her act had little to not effect, shifted the attention to Lean’s comment

“Eh…so you have experience with women…and how did you acquire something like that in a place like this?”

In a sense, it was a truly sounding question, since her arrival, Aurora had surveyed the surroundings but it truly was meaningless, the sea of trees combined with some hills and plateaus made one to think why would one seclude himself/herself in such an isolated place.

“Yes, my first partner…she was called Atxicosa Veridis…a Plantae…”

“(WHAAAAAT!! )”

Aurora was perplexed, of the different races that inhabit Nemidos, the Plantae are of the most enigmatic beings. They are, in short, a shy race, proof of this is that they seclude themselves in isolated places and more than likely they will evade an encounter with another race making them difficult to approach

Plantae are often called Nature envoys, Tree Fairies or such because they have a deep connection with nature and specifically with trees but these are just conjetures as there is little to almost no information of them

As Aurora made her own assumptions about Lean’s confession, she decided to get over the matter

“Okay, that is that, but we have our own agenda, Reidmo asked me to instruct you a little before the new cycle in Veritas begins, so lets not waste any more time okay?”

“Yes! Before going I have to do some preparations, is that okay?”

“Sure, let's get over the preparations, do you want me to help with something?”

“Thank you, but I already packed my luggage, I'm gonna retrieve it from the cabin”

Lean dashed the next second inside the cabin and shortly came out with the things he readied before Aurora arrived

“This is everything I'm taking with me!”

“Are you sure that's everything? Isn't that…too little?”

“Yes! Father wrote a letter for me so this is everything I deem indispensable”

“Okay, then, what about the cabin? Did Reidmo told you to lock it after you go or something?”

“AH! Thats right! I almost forgot, thanks for that Aurora! I’ll be back in a second!”

Again Lean dashed to the cabin, but this time he didnt come out early, and after 5 minutes of waiting Aurora went to the door and checked what was Lean doing. When in the door frame, Aurora watched the strange action of Lean pouring a transluscent liquid on everything in the cabin

“Lean..what are you doing?”

“Ah! Aurora, sorry, father asked me to burn the cabin and I need to use this, but dont worry this won't take any longer, I have already spread everything and only this section is left”

Aurora was taken aback by the sudden declaration of burning the cabin down, and after shifting her attention to the liquid itself she became wary

“(Miremira?? Why would Reidmo ask Lean to burn the cabin with that?)”

Miremira, a rare metal that is in a liquid state at room temperature. It's very volatile but the particularity of this metal is that when It's lighted, the fire burns mana (along everything with it), as proof of this phenomenon is that this fire is of a sick green like colour, it burns even the ashes and it doesn’t produce any smoke.

Regarding the extreme care one has to have when manipulating this metal aside, the usage of this substance is rather limited, only in blacksmithing or jewelry and of high caliber at that would be in need of this troublesome material

“Okay, everything is ready, Aurora let's get back a little, the fire is gonna reach us if we stay this close”

“Sure…”

While Aurora was lost in thoughts Lean had a rather happy expression, and when they distanced themselves 30m apart from the cabin Lean grabbed a small and of a dark red colour stone and launched it with force inside the cabin

It didnt take long for the fire to start spreading, and a big flame green and sick colored that reached 5 meters of height consumed the cabin

With the fire in the back, Lean rotated and facing Aurora told her

“Shall we go?”

He was smiling, but the contrast that the fire produced made Aurora have a rather eerie feeling

She kept that feeling deep inside her.