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Everything was pitch-black, an empty void, no trace of matter was found, not even so little that the human eye cannot see. It was just completely empty and silent. Suddenly, a music so divine and magical started playing. A gleam of white light appeared. It wasn't too bright nor too dim. Moreover, it was very beautiful to look at. It continuously emitted white dust all over the empty void, giving light around.
"You...," there was a divine voice coming from the white light. "You... When you see a yellow butterfly... Follow it..."
"Garu-kun. Garu-kun? Garu-kun!" a woman's voice echoed through the void.
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[ Year 1015 - 7th of January ]
[ Rheed Village - Free Land of Atharva ]
[ 6:30 am - Morning ]
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"Garu-kun!" A woman's voice is continuously being heard. "Garu-kun!"
"W-wha?" Garu starts to open his eyes.
"Garu-kun! You're father is calling you! He wants you to help him with the steel bars right away!"
"O-okay mother! I'll be right there! I'll just ready myself up."
Garu awakens from his sleep. He sits up on his bed.
"What was that... dream?" He questioned himself. "That was very weird. A neon yellow butterfly? Haven't seen those for some time already."
He stands up, fixing his blanket and pillow, and proceeded to check himself in the mirror.
"Damn Garu, you're quite handsome today." He continues to stare in the mirror. He deeply inhales, his stomach gets smaller, his chest gets bigger, and he proceeds to flex his half naked body. His hair is jagged. His eyes have eyebags, sleepy eyes to imagine. He has flies over his hair and he actually smells bad.
Although his hygiene is bad right now, Garu has quite the looks and figure. He looks young, light-skinned tone, has a fit body but not too muscular, and short ashen-gray hair that is naturally silky and jagged. He has black eyes, medium refined nose, a height measuring in 176 cm, and a cute smile.
"Mother!" He shouted. "I'll just take a bath and then dress up."
Garu goes to the bathroom of the second floor. He currently lives with his parents. The house is two stories tall, medium in size that is perfect for four people, built with stone bricks, a wooden roof, and wooden floors. They have windows, no glass, but with folding wooden shutters and a chimney. Besides their house is a small blacksmithing shop, it's where Garu's father works and the main source of income of the family.
He finishes his bath and dries himself up with his towel. He then dressed up with his clothes—a gray leather tunic and brown leather pants. He looks into the mirror once more, fixing himself, and says, "Damn Garu, you're looking better than earlier." He certainly does look better than earlier. He proceeded to go downstairs to where his mother is at.
"Good morning Garu-kun, you're looking fresh in the morning haha," said his mother. "You're father is waiting outside. I haven't cooked breakfast yet. If you finish helping him, I'll have food prepared on the table for you."
Garu's mother, Hana, looks so similar to Garu. A fine woman, she is. She is fair-skinned and has black long hair in easy waves with gray lowlights. She also has facial characteristics highly similar to Garu, but a girl version of it, looking pretty and cute, that explains where Garu got his looks from. She also has a sweet and soft voice, a charming one.
"Good morning mother, I'll go help father in the blacksmith shop right now."
Garu goes to the door of the house. He opens it. A light beamed through as he opens the door. It is quite a good and pretty morning.
"HAPPY 18TH BIRTHDAY GARU-KUN!!!" Everyone in the village gathered around in front of the house, greeting Garu an absolutely happy birthday.
"WOW!" said Garu. "I forgot it's my birthday today, HAHAHA! Thank you everyone! I didn't expect this surprise especially since it's 7:00 am in the morning now."
"It's better to celebrate your birthday in the morning so the celebration can start early and last for so long than starting it late." said a man in a robe.
"Heh," Garu chuckled. "Well if you think about it, it's better that way. Thanks for the greeting chief. By the way, has anyone seen my father?"
"Happy Birthday Garu!" His father greeted him sweet and softly with a deep voice.
"WHAA!" Garu shouted. His father surprised him from behind. "I thought you're at the blacksmith shop doing work. Why are you in the house? And why are you so sweaty?"
Garu's father, Gareth, was quite a seasoned warrior by looks. Having a jagged ashen-gray hair, deep voice, light skin, black eyes, thick black eyebrows, sharp nose, muscular body, a cool scar on the right eye, and a nice smile, he looked like he's been through a lot and overcame all of it.
"I'm sorry Garu-kun," said Hana. "I had to lie just for this surprise party to work." She smiled happily and chuckled. "You're father hid in your room... under your bed actually."
"WHAAATT?!"
"Heh," Gareth smirked. "It's the reason why I'm sweaty right now." He decides to imitate a phrase Garu was saying earlier. "Damn Garu, you're quite handsome today." while flexing his muscles.
Everyone in the village laughs, "HAHAHAHA!" Garu's face turns completely red out of embarrassment. "Please don't do that again, father," he said.
"What?" Gareth replied. He imitates Garu again, "You mean, damn garu, you're quite handsome today. HAHAHA! Or the one you were questioning about dreaming a gleam light?"
"NOT JUST THAT BUT EVERYTHING! Don't hide under my bed again, it's creepy and weird."
A certain girl around the gathering's attention was caught when she heard that Garu dreamed of a white light.
"Hahaha," Hana sweetly laughed. "You enjoy your father being like that anyways, Garu."
"Anyways!" Gareth shouted. "I think right now is a good time to prepare everything for Garu's 18th birthday."
They greeted me this early but haven't even prepared anything, thought Garu, who just realized this now.
Everyone in the village starts to prepare for the birthday celebration.
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The preparations are about to finish. It's 10:00 am in the morning, 3 hours of preparation was done for a special moment.
Garu finished helping some people in preparing his birthday celebration, though most of them insisted that he should just sit back and relax.
Finally! I'm about to turn 18, he thought. But I still haven't enrolled for an adventurer school. When will I ever have the opportunity to do so? Garu kept thinking of when he will get enrolled to one.
Rheed Village does not have an adventurer school, and so do other villages. It is too small to handle these kinds of infrastructures. Adventurer schools can be found within different cities in the Free Land of Atharva, and it is a must for every city to have one. It is a school meant for anyone who wishes to become an adventurer. In this continent, young people at the age of 16 to 18 begin to enroll for adventurer school if they wish to become one, though age is not really a requirement, and anyone of any age can enroll if they want to. You get to learn the basics of combat, specifically your chosen class and their repertoire of skillsets, abilities, etc.
Garu decides to go inside his house. He sees his mother clean the floor and prepare to deliver the food she cooked for the celebration. He goes through the living room and notices something new on a wall. "A new map?" He exclaimed. "Since when was this posted here?"
"It was just this morning," Hana said. "Your father's friend came to visit and gave us a used map he got for free."
"Oh, I might as well take a look at it then."
"Go ahead, though it's not the whole map. It's just the map of the kingdom we live in."
"Oh I see, is it updated compared to the old one?"
"Kind of... it's a bit more detailed, but it doesn't really hold any significant difference."
"Hmmm..."
Garu proceeds to check the map. Mother's right... it really doesn't hold any significant difference. It looks similar to the old one, but I'm still going to check it out.
Garu learned well of what's outside his village. Often, he was taught by Gareth and Hana, his parents, on what life was like outside. They lived in this village ever since he was born. Rheed Village was once under the rule of the Kingdom of Zenaria, one of the Five Human Kingdoms of Atharva, but ever since the Black Mist phenomenon, the kingdom has fall into ruin, not much of the kingdom was left. Any other settlement within the kingdom that didn't fall to ruin received word that Zenaria had fallen and decided to declare liberty and freedom in their living.
Throughout his childhood, all he did was he helped his father out in the blacksmith shop, ran errands for the family, helped other people in the village, and played games with people younger or close to his age. He never really ventured outside of Rheed Village, nor he had the intention of doing so back then, but now he thinks it's essential for him to become an adventurer as he sees it as a benefit in developing himself further in life.
There are quite a number of cities and villages, he thought. Ethera Village, Nallon Village, Abel City, Twinleaf City, and a bunch of them more. I wonder what's about those villages. The only thing I know is that anyone who lives in the Free Land of Atharva can live in any way they want to.
The Free Land of Atharva, as it stands, is a free land for anyone in Atharva who wishes to be free in living, often the standard of living is to live a life of peace, liberty, and if possible, prosperity. Although that's the norm when you live here, granting freedom doesn't really mean pursuing positivity or the betterment of yourself and everyone. The Free Peoples of Atharva, as the ones who live here are called, are just living free as they want. Whether it would be living free in good or evil spirit, everyone has their own way of living. If they wish to become good people, they may do so, and if they wish to become evil, they may do so as well. It's up to their decision and free will on how they will live their life here.
"Hey, mother," said Garu. "What do you think of me enrolling to an adventurer school?"
"I wouldn't mind if you enrolled in one," Hana replied. "And so does your father. You're free to become whatever you want as long as it's in good spirit. If you're asking for more opinions, how about asking your father?"
"So you wouldn't mind if I become a warrior like father?"
"I wouldn't mind."
Garu decides to go outside to the blacksmith shop and ask his father for his opinions. He is curious of what his father has to say about his decision. As he arrives outside near the smithing area, he sees a shady man talking to his father. The man suddenly draws his weapon to his father's face, pointing the blade towards the neck.
~~~~~~~ End of Prologue ~~~~~~~