When he arrived at the city gate, a guard about one meter sixty, wearing light armor, a helmet, and holding a piece of paper in his hand, started walking toward him.
When he got close, he said, "Good morning, what are you -, ah, it's you, Gen."
Gen then said, "Good morning, Joru."
"What's all this luggage? Are you moving out of town?"
"No, it's just going to be a long trip. I'm only taking what I need."
"Gee, if all this is what you need, where are you going?"
"To the ruins of the sands."
"What! Are you crazy, Gen? Hardly anyone ever comes back from the ruins. They say it is actually a monster that sometimes appears when it's hungry, so no one knows its exact location."
"You're exaggerating, Joru."
"Hold on then.", Joru then turned around and shouted, "STANLEY! Come here, Gen is crazy. Help me get his head right."
The people at the gate heard him shouting and started to look in Gen's direction, and when he saw this, he looked at Joru and asked, a little annoyed, "I am crazy?"
"Of course not, Gen. I just said that so Stanley would come faster."
Gen looked at him, a little annoyed, and said, "Okay."
After a few seconds, Gen heard a voice from far away, "What happened?"
Gen then looked in the direction of the voice and saw a young guard about one meter eighty, dark-skinned, with blue eyes and very short blond hair. He was wearing the same clothes as the other but was carrying his helmet under his arm.
As he approached Gen and Joru, he looked in Joru's direction with a questioning look, and Joru then said, "Gen wants to go to the ruins of the sands."
Stanley was surprised to hear this and asked, "What? Why do you want to go there, Gen? Do you know that it is a completely unknown and very dangerous place?"
And Gen said, "I heard that the ruins are an ordeal, and I was interested, so I will go there to check it out."
"Do you really need to go there, Gen? You're already pretty strong even without an essence."
Stanley was saying this because he has trained with Gen a lot, and of the normal people he knew, Gen was one of the strongest.
"I have my reasons.", Gen replied and then looked at the sky with a half-lost look.
Seeing this, Joru looked at Stanley and made a signal with one hand that Gen was going crazy.
Stanley then turned his gaze to Gen and asked, "Does it have to be today, right on your birthday?"
"Today is your birthday, and you are going to the ruins of the sands?! Tell the truth, Gen, you are going to another city for your birthday because you don't want Lina to spend all your money, or better, oops, I mean even worse, you don't want her to see where you are going to celebrate.", Joru said, and winked at Gen.
Gen ignored him and replied to Stanley, "I've stalled too long, more than three years, to be exact. I need to go as soon as possible."
Stanley looked into Gen's eyes, saw that there was no turning back, and said, "Alright, good luck on your trip then. Does Lina know about this?"
The two looked at each other for a while, and then Stanley said, "It's going to be a long night tonight, ah ..."
Gen then said, "It really will, especially after what happened this morning."
Upon hearing this, Stanley asked, "Hm? What happened?"
"Well, it's like this."
Gen then explained to him and Joru everything that had happened, and as they finished hearing the story, the two shouted in unison, "YOU WHAT?!!!!"
Everyone at the gate looked at them again, and Gen said, "Keep it down. We don't need everyone in town to know about it. It will only make things worse."
Hearing this, the two calmed down a bit. Stanley was about to say something, but before he could, Joru said to him in a whispered cry, "Stanley, I will need to take a few days off. My sister sent me a letter. She had an accident in the next town over, and she needs me to stay there for a while to help her."
"Unfortunately, I have to go as soon as possible because it hurts me to think of my weakened sister alone in another town. I'll put my armor away, and I'm going now."
He then started walking towards the city guard building next to the gate, but before he could take more than three steps, he was stopped by Stanley, who wrapped his arm around his neck.
Joru then asked, "What are you doing, Stanley?! I need to go, my sister-", but Stanley interrupted him and said, "You don't have a sister."
"I-I got confused, I meant my cousin."
"You don't have any cousins either."
"And how do you know that?"
"You told me the other day after work."
Joru was then in shock and thought, 'Me and my big mouth.', and then said, "I'm sorry, Stanley, I really don't have a sister or cousins, the truth is my girlfriend-", but was interrupted in the middle by a laugh that Gen couldn't hold back.
Seeing Gen laughing, Joru broke free from Stanley, grabbed Gen's shoulders, and asked, "What are you laughing at?! When night comes, this city will turn into hell! How could you kiss Lina Gen?! She'll turn this whole town upside down looking for you, and imagine when she finds out where you're going, she'll be ..."
Joru then stopped talking and suddenly started running towards the gate, trying to get out of town, but Stanley was watching him and quickly jumped on him, knocking him to the ground.
When this happened, everyone in the surrounding area looked in their direction, and some started to come closer to try to understand what was happening.
Joru began to speak while lying on the ground, "Stanley, let me out of town, please, just for today. I promise you I'll be back tomorrow!"
"If I could, I would, but we're going to need all the help we can get to hold that beast back.", Stanley said.
"But ... ah! All right. Now get off me before people start spreading rumors around."
Stanley then stood up and offered his hand to Joru, who accepted and stood up as well.
Stanley then looked at Gen and asked, "How long do you plan to be gone?"
And Gen said, "A week, that's the most I can afford with what I have gathered.", Gen said.
"Hmm, got it. Well, have a good trip then. I'll walk you out."
Gen then said, "Ok, bye, Joru."
And Joru said, "Bye? You think this is how things work. You arrange a huge problem for us to solve and run out of town as if nothing happened."
"But you wanted to run away too."
"D-Don't change the subject. You owe me and Stanley simply for the fact that we didn't arrest you now to hand you over to Lina to calm her down."
Upon hearing this, Stanley looked at Gen with a look as if considering something and said, "On that point, I agree with Joru. You owe us one."
"Sure!", Gen said, seeing the way Stanley was looking at him, "When I get back, I'll pay this debt."
And Joru said, "Great, but be warned, it won't be cheap. You better come back with money from your trip because I'm going to want to go to the 'Mirage Paradise'."
Upon hearing this, Gen was surprised. Stanley then ran towards him and said while covering his mouth, "Keep your voice down!"
Realizing that he had spoken louder than he should and that he was getting all kinds of looks, Joru looked at Gen and said, "Well, we can discuss it further when you get back. Good trip and good luck out there. Now I'm going back to my post, oh, happy birthday, Gen.", and then left as fast as he could.
Stanley looked at him running and shook his head, then turned to Gen and said, "Well, you better get going before someone shows up here looking for you."
And Gen said, "H-Haha ... that's right."
The two then made their way to the outside of the town.
On the way out, Gen offered his hand to Stanley, who accepted it by shaking it but also pulled Gen into a hug, slapping him hard on the back twice.
He then said, "Be careful out there. I know you're used to going out, but this place seems to be very dangerous."
And Gen said, "I don't know how many times I've heard that today, but anyway, I will be careful."
Upon hearing this, Stanley pushed him away and said, "Go away quickly before I change my mind and arrest you."
"Ok. You wouldn't be able to, but I'm going.", said Gen, laughing and turning his back to him.
Stanley laughed, too, and said, "Well, I can't deny it."
Gen then climbed on his camel and said, "Well, since you made it easy for me, when I get back, I'll help you with Cris."
When Stanley heard this, he was surprised and said, "Gen!"
"Hahaha, bye, Stanley."
Stanley shook his head helplessly and said, "Bye, and happy birthday."
Gen didn't say anything back or turn around. He just said goodbye with one of his hands and walked on into the desert.