"I thought you won't be coming back ever again?!" Mara exclaimed once she saw the half-giant enter her pub.
"It's been a while since I've taken a vacation so I thought why not I spend more time," Henova said in a relaxed tone.
He just arrived in Herza City that day and instead of going straight to his shop, he went to meet his long-time friend first.
"So how is it? Did you meet the young master? How is he?" Mara asked excitedly
"He wasn't there. The people there said he didn't live there often and usually live in Kazigare Valley or in HGA," Henova said as if he was disappointed.
After being reminded by Ares, Henova decided not to reveal everything even to his old friend Mara, not because she wasn't trustworthy but because the more she know, the more she would get involved and it might be dangerous.
"That's a place, not everyone could enter. Don't need to be too disappointed Henova. He's a noble so of course, it wasn't easy to meet him" Mara tried to cheer him up.
Henova on the other hand could only imagine Mara's reaction if he told her that he even eat at the same table as the Zanuki matriarch and her family; Mara might think he was talking nonsense.
"So what will you do now that you can't meet him?"
"I thought of retiring"
"What?! Why out of a sudden?"
"Maybe I will move to the west, buy a small house near the sea," Henova said after sipping his drink.
"Henova you're drinking coffee so why are you drunk?" Mara thought that the man in front of him was spouting nonsense. Never in even her wildest dream, she would hear Henova would mention the word 'retire'.
"I'm telling the truth. After spending time thinking without doing any work, I suddenly realized how tiring my life is. I've been working without a day off since 20 years ago so maybe now is the time for me to retire before I died because of overworking."
"Are you not going to come here again?" Mara seemed sad.
"Don't worry, I will come to visit you from time to time."
After chatting for more than an hour, Henova went back to his shop. However, the moment he wanted to enter the shop, he sensed someone was behind him.
He abruptly turned around and saw a man wearing black robe was smiling at him. Just like the previous man, only his mouth and chin could be seen.
Henova almost thought he was the same person until he remembered Ares saying that he had already captured that guy and the one in front of him has a small black mole below the corner of his lips, unlike the previous man.
"You are?" Henova asked.
"I come here to check on whether Sir Henova is fine. I assumed my friend must have been telling Sir Henova about our master's intention to recruit you," the man replied.
"Can you give me more time?"
"Of course. Maybe taking a vacation will help you make the decision. My master decided to give another gift to you," the man gave a ring embedded with a big dark blue rhinestone to Henova.
"What is this?"
"It's an artifact. It can teleport you anywhere you want and you use it three times"
The teleportation artifact was at least a grade 4 artifact because, unlike teleportation scrolls that have a distance limit, the artifact didn't. Henova could even teleport to the Gargantuan Islands located half a world away from Hargan.
"Does your master that adamant in recruiting me?"
"Yes. From his gifts alone, you can guess how much he values you"
Seeing that Henova was still contemplating, the robed man decided to leave, "May we meet again if fate allows us"
After the man leave, the contemplation expression on Henova's face was gone. He clenched the rings in his palm tightly.
That very same day he arrived in Herza City was the same day he leave it. Henova quickly pack his things and took along his hammer that have been with him since 20 years ago.
He left everything behind and went to the train station.
"Sir where do you want to go," the female staff asked politely.
"I want to go to Madrica Town" Henova answered hastily.
"We only have one seat left in the third class compartment. The compartment might be uncomfortable for people your size. Maybe you can come again tomorrow?"
"It's ok, I want to go there tonight"
"Sure, this is your ticket and may you have a pleasant journey"
Henova once again board the train but this time, his destination was Madrica Town which is located in the west.
Henova looked outside the window seemingly wary that even the passengers beside him felt uncomfortable.
The third-class train compartment became more suffocating than it had already been.
The night train ride was a long journey for everyone and it was hard to not notice a man of big size like Henova.
The next morning, the area near the main train station of Madrica City was swarmed with police and reporters.
A half-giant man had decided to commit suicide when the train was passing through a highway bridge to cross a deep mountain cliff just a few minutes before the train would arrive at its destination.
The half-giant man forcefully opened the train door and jumped outside, falling deep into the cliff.
"He looked so restless all the time during the journey. I just thought maybe he was uncomfortable due to his size and the third class compartment was also so packed with people. He kept on looking outside the window," one of the witnesses recount how the half-giant looked like and acted before the incident.
"I remember that he looked desperate to go to Madrica City that night even though there's only one ticket in the third class compartment," one of the female staff told the police officer about the half-giant's peculiar behaviour.
Police who investigated the case couldn't find Henova's corpse other than bits of flesh around the end of the cliff bottom. They could only confirm it was Henova based on the rhinestone ring he wore, pieces of clothes and a blacksmith hammer found on the scene.
The police reported that his corpse might have been devoured clean by wild monsters living at the bottom of the cliff. The case was quickly closed and Henova was deemed to have committed suicide.
The same day, around the outskirt of Midas City, a man that had filed a report about his missing son finally found his son's corpse after the police asked him to identify the corpse. The corpse was badly mutilated but he could identify it as his son based on the birthmark on the left calf.
Both of the dead people were identified as Henova Dervon, a half-giant blacksmith from Herza City and Hamsyar Ghaffar, a ten years old kid from Midas City.
These two news shocked the whole empire since it was rare for someone to commit suicide with a lot of witnesses and the other case happened near the capital city, making people question the security around the city.
***********************
Meanwhile, Ares who was spending his weekend leisurely had asked Ravi and Aaron to come to find him but they were late thus Ares who was bored decided to look around for them.
Ravi and Aaron were the two orphans Ares randomly helped when he found them starving and begging for food in an alley.
Ares put them under the orphanage that was funded by the Zanuki.
Ares decided to give them names since it was confusing to call them 'One' and 'Two' all the time.
The two of them who initially didn't have a name liked to write letters to him, telling him that they have been helping the church as regular volunteers every weekend when they didn't have class.
Yes, the orphanage sponsored by nobles would give free education comparable to public school to the orphans living there. The richer nobles would also check each of the orphans for any hint of mana awakening.
Unfortunately, both Ravi and Aaron were already way too old and they didn't awaken their mana thus it was immediately determined that they would be normal humans incapable of any power like the Guardians that they always saw on TV.
However, they didn't feel disappointed since as long as their young master Ares didn't abandon them, they could even sacrifice themselves to him.
When they were on their way to meet young master Ares after they officially moved out from the orphanage, a few robed guys blocked their path.
"Do you want superpower? If yes you won't starved anymore," one of the robed man said to them.
Ravi and Aaron both glanced at each other. They were confused why the stranger in front of them think they were starving.
They were indeed always starving a few months ago but since they met young master Ares, they never starved anymore.
The orphanage always gave more than enough food and young master Ares also gave them some allowance.
"What power Sir?"
It was Ravi who has light brown hair asked. He was sceptical but also curious at the same time. If he could be stronger and more useful for young master Ares, he would do it.
"You know the Guardians? Power comparable to those guys is what I'm saying"
"Sir, we will be 18 by the end of this year. It already determined that we will just be ordinary humans," Aaron who was already blind in one eye answered with a slightly impatient tone.
"Yes, I know but don't you want to make this place a better place where no one will starve and everyone will treat you nicely."
"No one starves and everyone is treated fairly, could there such a world?" Ravi asked with a hint of hope in his voice.
"Hey, I don't think we needed to listen to this anymore, let's go," Aaron didn't want to be delayed any longer.
He didn't want to let young master Ares wait for them too long. It also has been too long since he last saw his saviour, his Lord.
Unlike Ravi who felt he needed to do something to be more useful to Ares, Aaron always felt Ares would accept them no matter what. Thus he wasn't interested in what the robed man in front of him was saying, especially when they talked like a swindler trying to swindle poor people with sweet illogical dreams.
"Aren't you almost fully blind?" The man ignored Aaron's behaviour and continue talking with a slight smile on his lips that was the only thing visible under his robe.
"You, who are you? How do you know that?" Aaron was shocked since it wasn't obvious that he was half blind.
"I know more than you think. So how about that Aaron? Oh yes, you might not have a name now but Aaron sounds nice, right? There you go, I even give you a nice name. And your brother, Ravi seems interested."
Unknown to Aaron, Ravi and the robed man, while they were talking to each other, Ares used the earrings he gave to Aaron and Ravi to give an order, "Continue to probe as much information from that guy."
"Hmm Sir, what you said is true. Currently, my left eye is already blind and the eyesight on my right eye has become more blurry as time goes by. What should I do?"
"Brother?"
"Shh Ravi. I want to know if I had more hopes. If I go blind I think it's better to just kill myself"
"What! We already discussed this. Young-"
Before Ravi managed to finish his sentence, a voice he never expected to hear reverberated beside his ear.
"Ravi, let's your brother do the talking but continue acting frustrated. I want to know what that man wants. I'm listening"
Both Ravi and Aaron was given a special black stud earring that directly connected to one of Ares's earring. At first, he did this just to listen to anything weird when the two of them volunteered at the church.
Because he knew some of the church priests might ask these two innocent lads to do a suspicious errand or something but now he got to hear about something more interesting.
"Isn't it easier if we just catch them?" Tuah asked.
"Don't you realize that they know Ravi and Aaron's names? He also knew both of them didn't have a name before but weird enough he thought they were still nameless."
"So?"
"It means he knew something but his information seemed incomplete but he doesn't seem to realise that fact. So I want to know what this overconfident man wants from my boys."
Both Ares and Tuah continue to listen to the conversation between Ravi, Aaron and the two robed men. Only one of them was talking while the other one was holding an ordinary-looking wooden box.
"We can give you the way to gain power"
"So how much is the payment?" Aaron asked.
"What? We don't have money! Let's go, brother," Ravi acted like he didn't want to listen anymore.
"Relax. We are kind people. Just take it first and if fate make us meet again in the future, maybe I will ask you guys for help at that time."
Both Ravi and Aaron glanced at each other before Aaron who seemed like he was already tempted said, "Isn't it a loss for you guys? Why are you helping slump people like us?"
"We are a group of people spreading kindness all over the world thus that's why we don't need compensation or payment from unfortunate people like both of you. Let's make this world, a better world to live in."
"I-I agree but you still you don't explain what we should do," Aaron said uncertainly.
"It's easy. In this box contained two beast cores. When you consume the core, you will awaken your mana and obtain powerful ability. The bright orange core is for Ravi and the other one is for you."
The other robed man opened the box and it contained two cores, one was dark brown and the other one was bright orange with a tinge of red and brown.
"Take the box" Both Ravi and Aaron heard Ares's voice.
With uncertainty, Ravi took the box while Aaron still couldn't take his eyes from the core, especially the brown beast core that was said to be his.
"Good choice. Let's meet again when fate allow us to meet"
Before the robed men managed to vanish, bright golden chains suddenly appeared and tied both of them.
"What!? This-no way!"
"Hmm it seems you know what that is"
The four people turned their heads up and they could see a red hair youth leisurely sitting on top of the road lamp pole.
"You! What are you doing here?"
"What do you mean? I can be wherever I want"
"Huh, have you gone crazy after your twin servants died? Whatever, let us go and I can give you things to become stronger and make this world the way you want it to be."
"I don't understand?" Ares was truly confused. His twin servants, Ron and Ran were both still alive.
Why did this man say they were dead?
"It's not your time yet but if you let us go. When the time comes, we will also give you a way to become stronger. You will sit on the pinnacle of the world. You won't feel sad anymore."
"I'm sad?" This time, Ares was even more confused.
He never felt sad since he became Ares. There's nothing to be sad about. He was noble and rich and most importantly he had caring family members.
'This guy obviously know something most probably about the original Ares.'
"How do you know about the Moran twins?"
"I know more than you think. I know your family hide you and even your mother tried to kill you and never accepted you as her son. But worry not, we will help you"
"I see. Then that is more reason not to let you go"
"Tskk, we know you always try to bury all those memories but believe me, we will come to you when the time is right."
Seemingly persuaded, Ares immediately released his golden chains.
"You're as intelligent as ever. Thank you for releasing us young master Ares. We will meet again soon enough"
Since they were sealed just a moment ago, they couldn't use their mana yet thus they just walked out from the area with a smile still plastered on their faces. They treated Ares more cautiously than when they were interacting with Ravi and Aaron.
"Young master is it ok just to let them go. They seemed to know a lot," Ravi said worried about his master.
"Who said I'm letting them go? I never said that."
Not long after Ares said that a scream came from the direction the two robed men have gone.
"Young master, both of them have been paralyzed. Based on the concentration of their mana, both of them were in Abnormal rank," one of the Shadows reported.
"Bring them into the interrogation room in the villa basement. I have a lot to ask them."
"Yes, young master."
"Come here. You're already late"
Both Aaron and Ravi immediately followed Ares like baby chickens following their mother.
There was a huge villa with an ancient design in a hidden part of the suburbs slump area. It was an abandoned house sold at a cheap dirt price due to the rumour of it being a hunted house and that's why Ares's bought it.
Because Ares knew no one else would buy it and would come to that area.