When Kazama opened that door and he saw people inside, he was perplexed for a second as he previously thought that there would be no one living here.
The kid who was sitting near the adult man saw Kazama and was alarmed, so he shouted "wh-who are you?"
Being alarmed like this, the little kid was sitting on a round chair made of wood so he fell down and thought that Kazama is a thief or a murderer so he thought "no one has entered this house for more than 6 months and now a thief has come".
Kazama was so lost in his thought that he forgot to introduce himself, and the adult man lying on the bed was sleeping quietly.
The little kid thought "he might have come to loot us and afterwards to dispose off us from this house"…with a little pause he shouts "I will not let you do as you wish" and he suddenly stood up, there was a wooden table placed in that room near the bed so that little kid jumped to the table, tried to grab anything he can to throw at Kazama inorder to save the adult man.
There was a flower pot situated on the table, it was in good condition but the flower in it was long dead.
Just when the little kid was going to grab that flower pot, Kazama suddenly snapped out of his thoughts and considering the situation he says "sorry for late introduction."
"I am Kazama and I am a hunter and I came to take on your job request which you posted" and so he says, after hearing this the little kids hand which was going to grab the pot stopped and tears started shedding from his eyes and he asks Kazama "wh.…what did you say you are ?"
"Are you going to accept our request?"
Kazama replies "yes I think so"
The little boys says "for real?" And he ran towards the adult man sleeping and grabs his hand and speaks in his mind "father, finally we will be able to treat you".
Kazama saw this sight and he is observing everything carefully and after a few seconds he speaks up saying "sorry to disturb you but I would like to know about everything and how you ended up like this, if you don't mind".
After this that little boy asked Kazama to grab a seat which was placed in one of the corners of the room and sit.
Kazama took it but it's so dirty that even he is hesitating to sit but he finally sat down. The little kid also sat on his seat and after that he started telling him everything.
He started speaking saying "My name is Yohlo Semti and I am 10 years old"
Kazama is surprised that he is 10 years old but so mature at this age when every other child of his age would not be this mature.
Yohlo resumes saying "The man here" he points out his finger towards the man who was sleeping on the bed and speaks "is my father and his name is Frohnter Semti".
" I don't know well enough just how exactly we ended up like this but I asked about this from my father and he told me about it"
Kazama interrupts him and asks "can you also tell me what your father said?"
Yohlo says "I was just going to do so"
And he tells him " My mother and father used to live here from the beginning, this house is like a heirloom for our family, my grandfather gave this to my father before he passed away".
"My father is a farmer and so we have a little field just on the right side of our house and my father usually used to farm here but sometimes he used to go at far away lands to farm different varieties of foods and stuff and sometimes out of the Kingdom too. My mother was a house wife, she used to take care of me at home and also to maintain the house".
" When I reached seven years of age, father decided to increase his products qualities and he was successful. Many businessman wanted my father's products and it was all going well until a cheeky businessman came to our home. He said that he will give us 1 Gold coin to sell my father's process as to how he obtained those qualities products and to never sell them again. My father humbly refused but that businessman kept insisting and so father got angry and chased him away. After few days our supplies started decreasing as the crime rate increased all of a sudden and there were some theft of our products also but after this many businessman terminated our contracts and we were strangled".
"Then that businessman came and this time he offered us 2 silver for the same condition but he said that he was the one who did all of this to us like cutting the supplies and so on but father still refused him. He wasn't satisfied so he hired murderers and theives to raid our house and during this raiding my mother was stabbed and she died".
Just when Yohlo mentioned his mother he clenched his wrists and tears started appearing in his eyes but he completely wipes them.
Kazama interrupts him and asks "b..but a muder is just.…" He pauses and then says "….so didn't the guards and local authorities did something?"
To this question Yohlo answers "ofcourse we tried to go to the Law Enforcement Office but they were already bribed and so no one heard us. We even tried to get help from hunters guild but their response was the same. High level hunters weren't able to see us as they have a tight schedule so in the end no one helped us".
Now Kazama understood why this 10 year old kid is so mature despite his age, it's because he has seen some devastating events and so that's how he became this mature. Facing hardships and all.
[In this world the King or Emperor is the absolute authority and to govern the local areas he designated Duke, viscount, Baron, and so on with royal statuses to govern the designated area. There were guards also to guard these areas under the order of their superviser and there were Law Enforcement Officers who were kind of public servant and they look into the matters with the collaboration of that area's superior or royalty.
In Law Enforcement Office (LEO) people were choosen through the medium of a written test and an interview. Anyone can take part in it, even commoners and royals also.
They also have posts according to one's capabilities and performance.
Their authority is not so great but they do have authority higher than some royals, and their purpose is to make the world a better place by uprooting criminals and maintaining law.
Their branch is in every kingdom and they work as a whole entity.]
After hearing this Kazama is shocked and thoughts "there is also corruption in this world.…tch…"
Yohlo continues to speak "After that loss father lost all means so he sold his everything related to the products and in return we got 1 silver this time. That businessman downgraded his earlier offer and gave us less money than what he had promised but we weren't able to do anything. Father had already made plans to move out but just when we were going to move out, father suddenly collapsed during packing our luggage so I hurriedly went to get the doctor and after the doctor analysed father he told us that it's a sever disease."
"We came to know that father has a disease named Tricase and it's a disease which is non contagious but it eats away all of the inner organs of the living organism, apparantly it's a type of a parasite disease and it's caused by a worm specially found outside the Kingdom, and my father might have got it when he traveled outside the Kingdom for his work."
"After that we saw many doctors but none of them had any way to cure it as it can be treated outside the Kingdom and so no one in this kingdom knows anything about it's treatment."
"So we decided to see some other doctors in another Kingdom but father's health was against it and soon father became bed ridden."
"Soon a new doctor came in our kingdom from outside to see some other patients but we struck the lottery when he decided to check my father after I asked for it like a thousand times and I seemed like a mad person."
"He checked my father and he said the same thing about the disease but he also said that it is curable and if within a year we can get a specific plant we can save my father but if a year passes without any treatment then my father will die a painful death. And we won't be able to find that plant because father is bedridden and I am even unable to pass this neighbourhood, and if I went there I would die, but actually I tried to go and find that plant but within two tries I was badly injured and then I lost my will to go again"
Just the thought of his father's death made Yohlo to go into despair and when he mentioned about his father's death to Kazama, he nods his head down in fear.
"But when we lost all our hopes a dove came and gave us hope" Yohlo starts talking again, further saying "when father got bed ridden he wasn't able to even sit, and one day when I was outside our house sitting near the front door, lending on the door, an old man came and asked me why I am here and I told him everything. At the end he told me that if you don't have the power to do so then ask for help from someone who has the power to do so."
That old man was the dove of hope for Yohlo.
"I didn't understood those words so I asked in more detail and that old man said to post a request in the hunters guild and then hunters will do it but only if you gives them more coins"
"After hearing this I did as I was told and in payment I wrote huge payment, and some accepted this job but we didn't heard from them since. It is believed that they were killed. Guild reached this conclusion so we couldn't do anything."
Kazama is listening patiently to every word that Yohlo is uttering, and while doing so Kazama observes this room.
He sees that there are spider webs around the corners and this room as well as the whole house wasn't cleaned for a ve~ry long time and so the dust is thickly coated everywhere.
When Kazama see Yohlo even he can tell at one glance that Yohlo hasn't eaten in a while and because of hunger his body is pale, weak. But the man sleeping on the bed is worse, that man is more pale and is even more weak compared to Yohlo, his son.
Yohlo continues " I again lost hope but then you showed up and now I hope you will help us." And Yohlo got cheered up and his eyes were glowing with hope and determination.
Along with this Yohlo is expecting a positive answer from Kazama.
~ to be continued