In an isolated dark part of Milele town, several carriages were rolling down a path with a weird otherworldly quietness. There were 5 carriages in total and each of them was accompanied by 4 people at each corner. Additionally, there were several other people walking in front and behind the carriage forming a short procession. However, everyone in the group was eerily silent as if they were not even alive. They walked with quiet footsteps and even when they stepped on the puddles of water, there were no sounds of splashes. If one truly focused their attention on these people, not even the sounds of breathing could be heard.

After travelling for a short while, the procession took a turn entering a dark park. While this particular park was usually lively at daytime, it was home to all sorts of crows and sharks in the night.

“Hehehe, boss it looks like there is a big fish today!” In the dark, numerous sinister eyes gazed at the carriages entering the dark park like a bunch of hawks. These eyes were red with greed and the desire to rob, kill, and destroy; the absolute filth of society.

To these lowlife thugs and robbers who treated the park as their hunting grounds, it was obvious that whatever was in the carriages was something of value. Then with some barely audible sounds of rustling, over 20 men emerged from shadows and who knows where else. From their stealth and speed, it was clear that they were veterans in the ‘trade’.

“We cannot let others get to them first!” With a silent decision, the group of robbers rushed the after the carriages like a swarm of locusts.

The dark night was like a giant curtain enveloping everything and the deeper one went into the park the darker it was; deep black, like an abyss. It was so dark that coloured clothes appeared black and one could not even see their own hands when placed right in front of their face.

Soon, both the carriages and the robbers disappeared into the darkness as if rocks tossed into a murky pond. However, the expected sounds of clashing did not appear. A short moment later, the carriages reached the centre of the park which was a lit up area. Not only were there fluorescent flowers, there were also beautiful green lanterns everywhere that created a calming atmosphere in this area. However, all the robbers had disappeared by the time the carriages arrived at this place. Where did the over 20 men go? There was no noise or sounds of a struggle at all.

Crunch, crunch, crunch

“Blergh! That tastes horrible.”

“F*ck! I will never eat this type of trash again!”

“Haish, too bad we can’t eat the goods otherwise that would be a true feast.” Surprisingly, one of the men in the procession opened his mouth to speak.

What stood out about this man was the nasty black coiling tattoo that stretched out from his mouth to the top of his bald head on the right side of his face. The tattoo looked like a mixture between a snake, scorpion, and skeleton. Additionally, his face was thin but looked loose at the same time thus giving him an ugly leathery appearance. This man was wearing a brown coat made of animal hide and fur and a red-black robe underneath. As he spoke, he spit out a piece of strange raw meat from his mouth into the nearby bushes.

By this time, Kia had finally managed to catch up to the carriages. Although she took a slightly different path, she managed to traverse the park much faster. It could be said that the carriages took straight paths and sharp turns since they had to follow the main roads while Kia could travel along the footpaths and cut through the park much easier.

For this reason, she was already standing in the middle of the road amidst the green lanterns waiting for the carriages to reach her.

“Someone on the road?” Among the procession, the first person to notice Kia was a woman.

This woman was dressed in purple robes with a green cloth wrapped around her shoulders. Further, she had short hair, dark brown skin, and sharp features. She was neither thin not fat but instead she was impressively built with iron-like muscles.

When the procession finally arrived a few meters near Kia, she was finally able to see everyone clearly. Apart from the short-haired muscular woman dressed in green and purple, there were 5 other men at the front of the procession. Of these five, 4 of them including the man with the tattooed face were all dressed similarly. While the tattooed man had a brown fur coat, the other men had dark under-clothes just like him as well as fur coats of different colours: red, blue, and ash grey.

As for the last man, Kia could not even tell if he was a man at all.

‘Is he a man or a beast?’

The man was wrapped up in torn grey-brown cloth strips covering everything including his face. Beneath these cloth strips, Kia even saw thin sheets of grey and rusted metal which also seemed to be wrapped around the man’s body. She could not even understand how he could move with them. Further, apart from the strange way of dressing, the man’s stature was not a joke! He was well over 2 meters tall, almost approaching 8 feet tall. Additionally, the man carried a gigantic heavy metallic bow that seemed even larger than him on his back. It was so large that it seemed like siege bow.

When Kia was observing these people, they were also observing her. They could not understand why a girl would appear before them at night and even stand in the middle of the road blocking their way. Was she a robber too? Obviously not. When Kia felt these people’s gazes, an uncomfortable feeling arose in her heart as if she was being pricked by millions of needles. ‘Something is not right about this atmosphere.’ However, despite the strangeness o the situation, Kia was determined to get the Purgatory flower. For that reason, she threw everything to the back of her mind and addressed the procession. After-all, her mother’s life was more important than anything.

“Hello, please forgive me for stopping your esteemed selves like this but I am desperate.” With a respectful bow Kia greeted and apologized in the same statement before going straight to the point, “I am hoping to trade with you for the Purgatory flower…if that is too much even just information about it will do.”

The entire time she did not raise her head and after a few seconds, she still received no answer. When she looked up, everyone seemed to be looking silently at her. It was as if they were trying to bore through her body with their eyes.

It was a chilly and unnatural reaction with neither acknowledgement nor anger for stopping them; there was neither a positive nor a negative reaction. A procession with over 20 people yet dead silence?! Not even a cough?. One could not even tell if these people were human.

The only response was from a lion-like reddish brown dog at the side of the first carriage which was constantly glaring at Kia while snarling sinisterly as if it would attack her the next moment.

Author Note: Who are these strange people?