"Momma!"
"Dad!"
In a field of corpses, maimed limbs and burning rubble, a lone girl looks around her in despair with a teddy bear in her hand. Her small figure is stained by the blood of her once neighbors and friends, making her almost blend with the bloody surrounding. There was also a large gash that ran horizontal to her nose bridge.
"Where are you, Mommy? Daddy, please answer me! I'm scared. Wuwuuu…." She cries desperately and starts to search every corpse around her, touching their face and feeling their eyes which were wide open in shock and fear.
"There you are, child." An eerily familiar sound reverberates through the silent field. The girl recognizes the voice at once and turns back but what she sees scars her for her entire life.
….
Everything started nearly a month ago in the small village of Fiorin when a massive open cube-like structure rose from the ground a few tens of kilometers away. Normally, tens of kilometers would be a safe distance for the people of a small village like Fiorin but the structure was more than a few kilometers high and nearly a kilometer wide.
Even from tens of kilometers away, the structure was hard to miss. And to further aggravate this matter, a few days after the cube rose, strange clouds started to appear around the cube. These purple-colored clouds weaved through the open cube and crackled with purple-thunder, a magical phenomenon which was hard to ignore for the simple-minded villagers.
Messages were soon sent to the local lords who sent more letters to the regional warlords and before long, armies from all over the continent were heading towards the small town of Fiorin making the normally silent and quaint town a bustling place.
And the best place to observe this fact was none other than the Quaint Pig's Inn, the only inn in the whole village of Fiorin. Due to the influx of these new visitors, the inn which looked deserted even in the peak season was packed full of both burly men in their rugged leather armor and handsome and beautiful knights in armor.
"Five bottles of ale for my buddies here!"
"Where's ma bread, John!"
"Three bottles of *hic* ale and one pitcher of *hic* fine wine… won't you take our order, little lady*hic*"
The little lady in question was the youngest daughter of the innkeeper, Anna Rose. Aged at only 8 years old, she helped her family cope with the strange influx of soldiers and wealth by doing part-time as a waitress.
The girl had short stature and was skinny which lead to her losing her path in the dense forest of men quite often but she resolutely helped her father manage the inn.
"Anna! Where the hell are you!!" came her father, John Keech's harsh cry as the inn started to gain another influx of visitors.
Anna gulped in trepidation but steeled herself for the next hour of child harassment and scolding and walked into crowd with confidence and a head held high.
…
"How did your one-day-at-the-pub go, my little macho sister?"
A charming voice asked from Anna's back but after a full three-hours of heavy waitress duty in a forest full of sweaty, testosterone-filled human beings which had completely drained the energy of the little girl. As such, she laid on the yellow grass of the meadows motionless and completely drenched in sweat.
"Extremely good, I presume." Said the new arrival as she laid beside Anna. The person looked extremely similar to Anna but was a few years older than her. She had long golden blonde hair which she tied in a ponytail and wore a cheap but elegant dress. She had a perfect oval-shaped face with almond-shaped blue eyes. She was 12 years old and had quite a developed body and compared to her, her little sister looked more like a boy than a girl.
Little Anna on the other hand was only 8 years old, skinny like a malnourished boy. She too had blonde hair but it was of a much lighter shade. Their faces were nearly identical except for the thin lips.
"Gwen, do you think we will be safe?" Anna asked after a while as she gazed at the large open-cube structure that gloomed over their small village.
Her sister, Gwen, too looked at the structure before turning back to her and said, "Yes, sweetie. We will be. Don't let those burly, muscle-brained soldiers obstruct your vision. Behind them, there are more powerful people from various parts of the world.
And from what I heard, apart from the regional kingdoms, even large powers like Great Britain, Franks, the Germanic Alliance, and the Holy Roman Empire all sent a part of their armies here. Not only them, but even the Magic Council had also sent their mages over."
"Mages?!" Anna looked intrigued at once and turned towards her sister. Gwen nodded smilingly, "Yes, mages. They look very different compared to those huskies and I'm sure if those sweaty buffoons didn't congregate in the pub like it was their home, you should've been able to spot a few. They are really easy to spot if you know the traits."
"How?! Have you ever seen a Mage?" Anna asked excitedly.
Gwen thought for a moment and said, "Maybe. Maybe not. You see, mages are quite elusive. Unlike the muscle-brained knights and soldiers, they think before they start a fight and would never fight if they knew that the situation was unsalvageable. In that essence, I've never met with a Mage yet since if I did, I wouldn't have come out in a single piece."
"Muuu… then you are boring." Anna said as she turned away from her.
Gwen smiled and coddled her little sister a little, "Well, I met someone who has once trained a Mage… so…"
"Really?!"
Anna's excitement grew once again and her eyes sparkled with curiosity.
"C'mon, let's start walking towards home. I will tell you about my mentor, Sir Donovan while walking. He is…."
…
While walking towards home, Gwen told her sister about all the crazy things that she did in her academy in the nearby town and how crazy her mentor was. Her stories fueled the little girl's curiosity more and more and by the time they reached their house, Anna couldn't wait to grow up.
'I want to grow up and become a powerful Mage!' she thought the entire time but when she opened the door to her home, she was greeted by the heated arguments of her mother and father.
"What do you mean you want to leave? Can't you see that our business is finally booming!"
"Are you blind John? Do you not see that the huge cube is starting to act crazy? People are dying here day after day. And now, it's mother who has gone ill. Due to that strange cube. Are you so greedy that you won't even listen to the old chief's words?!" her mother, Louisa retorted.
The father, John Keech, who is a dark blonde muscular man in his forties puffed his pipe grudgingly and replied, "I get what you say but I'm not disillusioned. I've talked with the soldiers on the ground. They say that they have figured out the cause of this phenomenon and it is nothing extraordinary. So right now, instead of running away like scared villagers, we should use this opportunity to gain as much money as we can before finally moving from this backward village. I believe we will make a great business in Isus, don't you think so, Lenard." John turns to the third person in the room, Anna's uncle Lenard.
Lenard, who was in his thirties, nodded his head and replied, "Listen, sister, I think brother John is correct. Given the size and magnitude of this cube, if it amounted to something dangerous, the soldiers and commanders would've known about it long ago. And if they did, they would run away at the first sight of danger, after all, this isn't their fight but they didn't. They are still here and given the nature of those nobles, I'm sure this cube is not a calamity but instead an opportunity to them. And to us. Moreover, Isus isn't that far away so—"
"Exactly!" Louisa intervened, "Isus isn't that far away and if something really bad does occur we won't be safe. I say we move towards Io or Osloth where it is much safer and business is more prosperous!"
"What?! But they are on two different kingdoms—you know what, enough!" John sprung up from his seat, pointed his finger at his wife, and said in a tough tone, "Do whatever you want but I'm not leaving this place. I spent my whole life building this inn and I won't abandon because some hoodoo lass came and spouted some nonsense to the old chief."
"You—you are incorrigible. I can't believe you want to endanger your mother's life just because of your little greed. She is your mother, John not mine. You know what, fine! Even if you don't see her as your mother, I do so you can stay here in this little shit hole and die a rat's death while I take mother for treatment. You piece of trash…" Louisa's curses thundered across the house but John wasn't shaken.
He extinguished his pipe and was about to rest for the day when his eyes met Anna's. Immediately, his face bore a wicked smile and he said in a sinister tone, "Very well, Milady. You may leave whenever you want but… dear little Anna stays here."
'What?!���
"What?" Louisa frowns confusedly. "What does Anna have to do this?"
John grins broadly and goes behind Anna and clamps on her shoulders, "Well, unlike y'all who has done nothing other than arguing and talk shit of this doomsday bullcrap, dear little Anna has been helping me a lot in the inn.
Thus, I suggest that instead of arguing like this all day, we split up. You, Louisa, can take mom to whichever town you want to and settle there for a while. You know, get things ready for us to move while we earn our money here. And after all these heebie-jeebies die down, maybe we all would go to the town of your choice and start anew with the money we earn now.
It's a win-win situation."
Louisa looked at him with a horrified expression while most others had astonished faces. Even Lenard looked at John with a frowning and disapproving gaze.
"Dad, stop it! This is low even for you!" Gwen slapped John's hand but John wasn't stepping back.
"Nope, I'm clever and I'm not backing down on this. And you, young lady, is also going to work too."
Gwen looked at him with a gaping mouth but didn't have words to retort so she stormed out of the room.
Louisa's originally confused face turned stone cold, "Gwen isn't staying here with you. She has clearly stated that."
"Oh! So, you're going to use the free-will card, huh, miss cold-face! Anna, tell mom that you want to stay here with your dad." John said defensively and tightens his grip on Anna's shoulder.
Anna grimaced under the pressure but internally she was in turmoil too. The truth was, just like her sister, she too liked her mother more than her father but that doesn't mean that she didn't want to gain her father's recognition. The very reason why she wanted to work in the pub was to gain her father's affection and love.
But even combining all that, she too wasn't on the 'all-is-good' wagon and this created a turmoil in her head.
John's expression darkened and he crouched down a little and whispered in Anna's ears. "If you agree, I promise to introduce you to one of my Mage friends whom I recently met. Deal?"
"Really?"
All of a sudden, the turmoil in her head was tipped completely towards her father. The mere mention of a Mage was enough to change the heart of a child on the other side.
"Hey! No cheating! Anna dear, don't listen to that asshole—"
"Whoa, whoa, back off. No cheating, you said." John said shamelessly and pulled Anna back, much to her surprise at the sudden usage of force.
"Do you want to stay with daddy, Anna?" John smiled creepily at her and she could only nod meekly. Her innocent heart couldn't comprehend the intricacies of the adult mind and simply chose the nearest option available.
Louisa gaped confusedly at what happened in front of her but in the end, couldn't help but sigh.
Sensing the defeat in Louisa, John's smile broadened and he finally released Anna's shoulders. When he did, a loud cracking sound erupted which was proof of how strong his grip on Anna's shoulders was.
With elated steps, John moved to leave the room but stopped right beside Louisa. He closed in on her and whispered silently into her ears.
"If you think breaking this family is that easy, dear, then you're wrong. But if you're still adamant about leaving me, I will make sure you lose something very dear to you. So just accept the fact and stay here with me. You cannot escape me."
He left grinning, leaving Louisa fuming in anger, who after cursing silently for a moment barged out of the room in pure anger. She didn't even glance once at Anna who was still standing in her spot, petrified at the strange development.
Lenard, the only other person in the room who understood his brother well enough couldn't help but sigh helplessly before leaving too.
"Stay strong, Anna."
…