A 24-year-old man named Ormr was hiding behind a rock in Crococliff. He was peeking at the girl dressed in blue and the skeleton thin boy who had appeared on the clifftop out of nowhere.
Like any other day, Ormr was doing what he did the best and what he did the best involved being somewhere unnoticed. He was a master stalker. His face was like that of any other jobless man in their 20s who could be found roaming aimlessly in streets, breaches, parks, ships or anywhere, you name it.
He was wearing a creased white shirt with folded sleeves. The only odd thing about his attire was the brown band around his wrist. He was here on a secret mission.
"Look!" the thin boy suddenly shouted.
This made Ormr back off and hide his face behind the rock. He sat by holding his knees and wondered if the rock was big enough to hide him. And suddenly he heard the same boy shout again.
"Hey look!"
Ormr felt defeated. Today, someone had caught him for the first time. He stood up obediently and turned to face the skeleton boy. In his mind, he praised the young boy. But his head backed off a few centimeters as soon as he saw the new development. The thin boy had attacked the girl named Maple with a knife.
Shine!
"What the" Ormr almost said out loud because no one dared to attack Maple. Even his boss, the leader of Westfront Syndicate, would think a hundred times before lifting a finger on the girl.
Today, he saw why no one had the courage to take a swing at Maple. The daring boy's body emitted smoke while flying away from the girl. Poor soul looked like a burnt potato stick.
Suddenly an orange flash followed!
Pure reflexed made Ormr close his eyes, but that was not enough. Orange color splashed and started to haunt his vision. He felt being sucked into the sun, except the sun was only burning his eyes. He moved his hand around to feel the rock. It felt good knowing he was still on the ground.
"What's happening? Could this be the aftereffect of the treasure?"
He slowly bent down to feel the rocks underneath his feet. A feeling of powerlessness wobbled his legs. He tried to take deep breaths, but his heart didn't stop beating like a crazy monkey. What if the treasure was also a flare, a sos signal, for help?
"Oh my god! Oh my god! I am sorry." Ormr held fast to the rocks and prayed. "I am sorry for following your daughter. I won't do it again. Please..." He began muttering gibberish towards the end.
After an unknown amount of time, the orange color disappeared from his vision. He looked around suspiciously with one eye shut. The rocky which he was hiding behind was still near him. He got up and turned around, only to find that Maple and the boy were nowhere to be seen on the clifftop.
. . .
Atlus' remembered touching the girl's neck with a knife before his vision turned blank and his thoughts disappeared. He had no clue that he fell down the cliff. And the only evidence of that incident would be his shirt and shorts. As the rocks had torn multiple tiny holes stained in red on his backside.
After waking up, the first thing he saw was a pair of worrisome brown eyes that seemed as if they would melt and fall on his face. His body was lying in front of the girl. He moved to get away from her. They were in a small coast at the back of the Crococliff.
"Don't worry, you are safe now." The girl said in a sweet voice. She was holding a narrow, cylindrical glass tube which was half filled with a green liquid. "You should drink some more if you are not feeling well." She proposed with a gentle smile.
This healing potion was a gift from her father. The only thing she knew was that it was better than healing pellets. But seeing the boy heal fully in less than a minute made her heart ache a little. It must be really expensive, she thought.
Atlus looked at the green liquid, then at himself. He couldn't tell why he blacked out or what potions were. But a cozy feeling was brewing in his stomach and spreading throughout his entire body through his chest. He felt an itch to jump a thousand times. His thinking speed turned up from soggy snail to lightning fast.
I was defeated by the girl but instead of finishing me off she saved me so this mean she wants something from me or maybe she wants me to do a task that no one can do like saving her world from evil magic villains like the flying man who was wearing my kingdom's military uniform so this means I am the hero of this world but to defeat the villain I need to get powerful like really really powerful and to do that I need to fly which sounds pretty cool and I am up for it any month of the year any week of the month any day of the week and this makes me wonder what in the world is happening to me.
"I will save you and everyone from the evil flying dictator." Atlus said at 350 words per minute, which was pretty darn fast if you don't know like what the heck man how can you not know that 350 words per minute is pretty fast?
"Pffff-!" the girl chuckled. The more she thought about what the boy said the funnier it seemed. "No, you don't have to save me. I am Maple by the way, a native to this lovely island. You?"
"My name is Atlus I am from the Flint kingdom, and I don't find this island lovely yet but only yet and I am super hoping that it will be as lovely as you make it sound like."
Atlus got up and adjusted his body so that a good amount of sunlight would fall on his face. The wind blew in dark gray hair in the air, and it was just perfect. This was the hero pose that he had practiced more times than he ate or drank in the past few years. A wave of water splashed at the rocks nearby with a loud noise.
He grinned in satisfaction, revealing his teeth. For the longest time, he wanted someone alive to see this pose. But something felt off. Showing off his teeth didn't feel like he practiced.
He used his tongue to feel his teeth. They were like spear tips now reduced to a hammer top. Only the upper canines had any bit of sharpness left.
"Flint kingdom?" Maple asked. "I don't think anyone uses that word anymore. Especially not on this island because we have a lot of foreigners. Hey, are you listening to me?"
"Flint kingdom is history kid, and so will you be if you don't step away from the girl." The newcomer announced. He was wearing a mask that covered the lower half of his face. Even a million people wouldn't be able to identify him just by seeing his messy hair and generic eyes.
Ormr smirked behind his mask. He raised his hand to show a dagger. The clean metal reflected Maple and Atlus. But as he swiped two fingers over the blade, its color changed to violet. He felt as if he was doing a magic show for the kids.
Ormr's confidence came from his reasoning. It was more of a realization. Rumors around the island said that Maple carried a powerful protective treasure on her. And knowing her father's identity, no one tried to test their luck to find out the treasure's power.
And this boy with no apparent magic almost sacrificed himself to the treasure that injured anyone who tried to harm Maple, then send a shockwave that blinds and weakens the onlookers. It was clearly made so that Maple could escape.
There was no way for such an effective treasure to work twice in such a short period because it ran on mana. And every person on the island knew that Maple couldn't use magic. Plus, her father, who recharged the treasure with mana, was nowhere in sight.
"Get lost boy! I am taking the girl with me." Ormr said. He felt particularly angry with Atlus. He waved his dagger in a threatening motion. On careful examination, violet air was leaking from the blade.
"Huh?" Atlus turned his attention to the mini boss.
"Careful Atlus, that's a poison blade." Maple warned, while moving a few steps back. A wave crashed at the rocks again, making her shiver slightly.