Breathing heavily as she sat on top of the palace, covering her body with a brown cloak. Wind continued to blow from such a high place. Staring at the sky as tears slowly ran on her cheeks, she wandered her eyes around the kingdom as she stretched her hand towards the dim horizon.
"I'll find you, Mother!" She mumbled.
The moon was full as its light showed behind her. Empty eyes continued to gaze from a far with a strong cold breeze blowing beside her, she slowly tilted her face to the side looking at a faint figure walking towards her. The light revealed the currently pale skin she had.
"Will finding her answer your questions?" The figure called out to him.
"I wonder…"
A few hours passed and the sun had risen. News broke out within the bounds of the palace, maids were walking recklessly towards the King's chambers. They banged the door fiercely, awakening the King from his slumber.
"Enter!" He ordered.
The head maid immediately entered her body looking tense and was trembling, she bowed her head as their eyes met. Her voice cracked as she spoke. Charles' eyes widened as she passed the absurd news to his highness.
"What do you mean she disappeared?!"
"I apologize! your Highness, but according to her maids and as I saw with my own eyes she was no longer there…"
"What did the knights guarding the gates say??" Charles spoke with an irritated voice.
"Of course we asked them but they had also not seen her. We apologize your highness"
Charles gave out a deep sigh of disbelief as he rubbed the middle of his eyebrows. He gestured his hand causing the maids to leave the room immediately. He stared at the view from the balcony of his room, tears ran down from his eyes.
"What am I supposed to do now?"
As problem after problem arose within the Kingdom of Avaritia, Lyon, who was given an escape from all of it, was sleeping peacefully inside the room that was given to him. He was awoken by a loud thud on the room's sole wooden door.
Instinct struck which made him suddenly move to the side of the bed. Hiding his lower body on the bed frame as he glared at the door. He pulled the blanket and wrapped it around his arm. He could feel the presence of someone with a terrifying amount of mana standing on the other side of the door.
"Who is it?" He calmly asked.
His fist was clenched while his knees were pinned to the ground ready to lunge at whoever entered the door.
"T's I, Mili"
A girl with a small voice called out to him. He gave out a sigh of relief, slowly standing up as he removed the blanket from his hand. He walked towards the door and opened it, giving out a bright smile to the young girl who stood in front of the door.
"May I ask what are you doing here, Mili?" Lyon gently asked.
She smiled back at him while she held a doll on her chest. But she didn't give off a reply, she simply walked inside the room. Lyon moved out of the way to let her in, he continued to feel the terrifying mana coming out of Mili's childish body.
She sat on the wooden sofa prim and proper, she also sat her doll with its hands on its legs. Lyon walked back to his bed and started to fold the crumpled up blanket. Mili took a deep breath before speaking out her words shocked Lyon.
"Plis helf mi s'ster!"
Lyon was speechless. His eyes widened as he saw the small child bowing her head in front of him. Frozen still like a statue, he had no idea what was happening.
"Uh… eh… wait, what?" He uttered.
"Why do you mean, help your sister?" he asked again.
"Mi s'ster hast wiik magik so plis helf her!" She repeated.
Lyon walked towards her and gently guided her to sit back on the sofa. He then asked her why she was asking such a thing. Tears ran through her small face as she explained the current situation to Lyon. His face looked confused as most of her words were a little bit incomprehensible.
"So you mean to say, your sister has a weak magic aptitude. But to prove to your mother that she is worthy of ruling over the forest she plans to take down Fenrir which is the largest wolf in the forest?"
"Yes"
"If that's the case then I'll do my best to help your sister" Lyon said.
Mili's face immediately lit up, she was so excited of Lyon accepting her offer that she lunged her body towards him giving him a hug. He smiled as she looked at her, he slowly paced his hand above her head and was about to rub her hair when his eye suddenly ached.
A vision flashed in front of him. The forest was engulfed in flames, thunder crackled from above, while people of the forest were screaming and running away. A large wolf that was larger than the trees of Gluttire held Elizabeth's lifeless corpse in its mouth.
The wolf threw her upwards and caught her using its mouth, swallowing her whole. The wolf howled towards the large leaves of the tree. Lyon started to breathe heavily as his eyes widened. He looked down and saw Mili's frightened face. He immediately covered his eyes and was about to talk to Mili but she ran away from him.
"Shit…" he mumbled.
His eyes returned to normal as soon as Mili left the room. Despite just waking up, Lyon felt exhausted.
"Is my eye consuming too much mana?" He thought as he walked out of the room and went straight to the stairs. As he reached the upper floor he was surprised to see numerous people chatting around, crowding the supposedly large room.
They wore various kinds of clothing from normal armor to clothes embedded with large quantities of mana. He walked straight into the crowd being pushed and shoved by those who were busy talking that they couldn't see him.
"Oi! Do you know who ya'r bumpin 'huh kid?'' one of the men who wore armor and mana embedded clothings said.
The man shoved Lyon to the ground. Eyes locked on the two and the man smirked at him. His eyes were dark green and his skin was pale. The man has a muscular build that was covered with thick metal armor and a large sword strapped behind his back.
"I apologize…" Lyon replied.
Lyon slowly stood up without a hassle but was shoved again to the ground by the same man. Giving out the same smirk as he walked passed Lyon.
"Annoying…" Lyon muttered.
Murmurs echoed throughout the room as Lyon walked around. Waiting in the next room was Odagaia who had a warm smile when she saw Lyon walking towards her. The dining room was rearranged to accommodate people as it was a large room.
"Was the room comfortable?" Odagaia asked.
"It's way better than the rooms inside the palace" Lyon jokingly replied.
"Oh my, if Charles was to hear those words coming from you he might just flip out"
The two laughed at each other's words. Odagaia then snapped her fingers, all the exits immediately closed shut. Everyone's gazes turned to her as she stood in front.
"A pleasant morning my dear people. We all know the reason as to why we are gathered here. But since we have a guest I will explain what our annual event is. The goal of "THE HUNT" is to slay mana beasts that evolve inside the forest of Gluttire. Teams must slay and bring their core back to this room before the sunsets, so whoever brings the most amount of cores wins. But if you are able to slay Fafnir or one of her 5 cubs then you will be deemed as a winner" Odagaia explained.
Lyon listened to her words as his eyes wandered around the room looking at his possible opponents in the event. As he continued to look around he saw Elizabeth at the very corner of the room wearing a robe, deliberately hiding from her mother.
"... Since we all know how many lives Fafnir has taken I suggest not attacking her even if you have a powerful weapon and armor. The forest is large enough for everyone as per our tradition. Let THE HUNT begin!!"
She was about to open the gates when she saw a few of her fighters among the crowd. They were known as The Forest Guardians, people who have large mana pools and were hand picked by Odagaia herself, tasked to defend the forest from intruders who try to destroy or steal within the forest.
"Oh my! What a surprise! The Guardians have returned. Who would've thought that this many of you would still be alive" She spoke sarcastically.
Everyone moved to the side leaving the group all alone at the center of the room. They stood in formation with three men up front, they all held swords with large thick metal blades embedded with an enormous amount of mana.
Their bodies were built with large muscles as they stood proud and tall facing the Mistress of the Forest. They went down on their knees in sync, bowing their heads to the person they served.
"We have returned!" The Guardian in the middle of the front line said.
"Will you be participating in this year's Hunt?" Odagaia asked.
"Yes, our goal for this event is not to win but rather to defeat Fafnir to finally conquer the last remaining part of the forest" The man replied.
"What a wonderful goal to have, Captain Edward"
People began murmuring as they heard the Guardians name. It was the first time that they saw the appearance of the Guardians Captain who rarely ever showed up from meetings to even small gatherings of the people. He had blonde hair with dark green eyes, his body was much more muscular than the rest of the guardians while his armor had much more dents.
"But allow me to introduce all of you to our special guest who will also be participating. He is one of the greatest knights of Avaritia and the known child prodigy, Lyon Aschere"
Everyone applauded their hands as he stood beside Odagaia. But one of the Guardians stood up and started laughing while pointing his finger at Lyon, it was the same person who shoved him a while ago. Edwards' eyes widened as he never thought his men would do such a disrespectful thing.
"Oh my… I think your men needs to be di-"
"How annoying…" Lyon spoke.
In the blink of an eye Lyon disappeared from everyone's sight a loud sound echoed from the back. They were all shocked to find Lyon standing in front of the disrespectful guardian holding the large sword with only one hand. It was raised in a diagonal position ready to strike the guardian.
But Edward held Lyon's arm with both his arms, he held it so tight that almost all of his veins could be seen. Lyon dropped the blade before giving Edward a bland look with his emotionless crimson eyes. He then slowly walked back to Odagaia's side leaving everyone speechless.
"I apologize for my men's insolence, I will be sure to discipline them!" Edward shouted with sincerity.
The disrespectful man's armor fell to the ground in four pieces while his blade slowly cracked before shattering like glass. The blade had cut through the armor leaving a long slit on the man's chest, blood began to drip from him before he fell down unconscious.
Lyon raised his hand gesturing that he didn't need the apology. Edward bowed his head before ordering his men to carry their wounded comrade. One female Guardian stood next to Edward as they continued to walk towards the opening exit.
"So that child was The Reaper, huh?" She curiously asked.
"I know his magic aptitude was beyond that of Avaritia's Commander but who knew he had such physical strength. He's simply beyond terrifying" Edward replied.
The doors opened with everyone leaving the room silently leaving Odagaia, Mili and Lyon along with maids who began fixing the room.
"I apologize for hurting your knights, but he pissed me off" Lyon said.
"I wonder what's happening inside that person's mind. But then again what is your plan for this event?"
"I think I'll try to get as many cores as possible or maybe kill Fafnir to return your kindness. Well then I'll be leaving now"
Lyon walked towards the other room and left Odagaia wondering how strong Lyon actually is.
Chapter End.