A young boy sat on a wooden bench cradling a water bottle in his hand and staring at the distant sky; clearly lost in his thoughts, and unaffected by the bustling city and swarm of people going about their everyday lives while the sun above them was blazing with its usual indifference towards the people under its merciless rays.
He was brought out of reverie by a some gasps of surprise and awe around him: the people were looking at one of the build boards to his right where a video showed some titanic beast the size of a five storied building which had black bones protruding out of it's body and looked like an over-sized ape, but the people were pointing at a woman sitting atop the corpse of the monster while looking at the camera with a bored expression on her face.
The headline read: 'A titan — code-named "Centaur"— was slain in the Malezo forest by Miss Janice from the Hunter's association.'
Masato chuckled seeing this 'titan' in the video and even more so when he saw the face of Janice reluctantly posing for the camera. 'Ha! A titan my ass— as if a B-rank hunter like Janice could even kill a titan of all things.' He thought to himself and didn't bother with this obvious propaganda anymore.
The only thing Masato cared about was to get on a train and be on his way, so he had came here as soon as he could. He gave one last cursory glance around him that showed the busy streets; probably due to the congress that was probably going on in some place in the capital right now, which would be broadcasted tomorrow. He threw the empty bottle on a bin nearby and headed towards the train station in front of him that was named warpath of all things.
The station looked the same as the one in the other quadrants of the city except that this station's entrance was filled with beggars and peddlers due to the lack of authority in this quadrant; he even saw people from the Beastman and dwarf kingdom sitting beside the humans with some missing limbs, a third eye, or some large wound in their body around the sides of the entrance of the station that was just a single storied building; these people had a holograph projected from some old gen comm in front of them.
The holographs displayed these words: MAY YOUR DESTINY BE GRAND AND GLORIOUS; With a sign that was the universal expression of begging right below those words and the reason they had turned to begging written below it. Some people scanned their comms in front the holographs while some just went about their way in to the entrance. He walked inside the sliding gate of the station while waving his left hand on those holographs.
"May your destiny be grand and glorious." The beggars who said to him in a grateful tone; — repeating the same mantra of the 'Everseeing one' he had gotten used to after coming to the capital.
"Withdrawn 100 credits" a mechanical sound repeated multiple times in his ears. He touched his right wrist where his communicator was implanted and muttered, "Remove duplicate notifications, and book a first class ticket to Kendra."
|It's done, Master.|
"Thanks, Riri." He said so and looked at the tunnel he had arrived at. This tunnel had a high ceiling made of some rough material and had a bright yellow mana crystal which were lighting up the area embedded into them.
The tunnel
And It seemed, he wasn't the only one impatient though...Masato spotted many people complaining about the delayed train and most of them seemed to be taking advantage of the long holiday from studies and returning to their home.
One such group was led by a boy who seemed to be followed by his "friends", though they apparently didn't seem like so.
And the best part was that Masato recognized them.
'Gotta get past them.', Masato thought not wanting to annoy himself with them. So he headed towards the station after they had entered the station.
The train itself was a magnificent sight to behold...The train was a behemoth painted with a lustrous ultramarine and gold magi-paint.
The sleek train was heavily fortified with magic turrets and with various carriages containing thousands of passengers. The carriages were separated by the class of the ones within. This was illustrated by the type of metal that was used in those said carriages; some were made of exotic and rare impenetrable material.
'Well, at least that's what people advertise anyway.'
'They're not so 'impenetrable' against some abominations anyway.'
However, all the carriages appeared the same form outside it was the treatment while inside that had the obvious difference...Masato had chosen the business class as usual and headed inside.
The interior of the carriage appeared bigger from the inside, which it actually was. There were many intricate and beautiful fractals etched at various places inside but very few actually paid any attention to them and many who did were small children or were someone who saw them not as just a decoration but for what they were.
The interior of the carriage appeared bigger from the inside, which it actually was and those fractal runes were the ones responsible...or the one who carved them...
Masato looked at them with interest...
'Do they teach this at the academy?' Masato wondered.
Masato was brought out of his reverie by a shout behind him.
"Hey, kid! start moving."
It was the ticket collector.
Masato gave the man an apologetic smile and settled down on a seat facing another where an old man around was tinkering with his expensive-looking watch...the old man looked perplexedly at his watch, and at the clock outside.
Then he heard the old man muttering to himself.
"Damn that brat... she's done it again!"
But the old gentleman was still staring daggers at the watch.
'why's this old man so vexed...?' Masato mused to himself but didn't say anything to the old man and leaned back on his seat.
The old man tilted his head towards Masato, he seemed to have just noticed him and after getting his bearing, answered him.
"Problem? no young man, it's not me who's got a problem it's my daughter who will be in a big problem later..." the old man said, his voice mirthful and annoyed at the same time.
"I presume that the problem will be you?" Masato tried to not give a toothy grin.
"why not? she dared tinkered with my watch" Then he shoved the watch in front of his face.
"I was supposed to get on the train at 3 pm, now it's already 4 pm"
After Masato checked the time with his own watch, Masato realized that the watch was definitely running late...
and so did the old man...
A robotic feminine voice was heard inside the carriage.
"We will be departing in a minute. Please take your seats if you haven't already and we apologize in advance for any accidents that may happen in your journey. Thank you."
The train was soon getting filled to the brim and Masato saw some people coming towards their section. They were the same group from his academy who were lingering around the station.
'They're coming this way, aren't they?' Masato groaned internally…
Those group of people had annoyed before and Masato realized that he had to deal with them again.
Sure enough, the thugs started to come before Masato's section where there were still two seats left.
"Hey, old fellow. Let the boss sit in there." A rude guy from the group rushed to their section and shouted to the old man, and he seem to look down both on the the old man and Masato.
And the old man didn't seem to notice the guy or didn't care about him as he simply stared outside with a sour look.
"Didn't you hear me? I said to give the seat to our boss." The guy repeated impatiently while glancing back at his boss who was coming towards them.
"What's going on Ralph?" the 'boss' of the group asked the rude guy who pointed to the old man accusingly and replied. " That old bag of bones didn't move away from that seat when I told him to, boss."
"Oh, so that's it? We can sit anywhere we want and there are still so many seats left, so why do you want to cause trouble?" he said after giving the rude a harsh stare and secretly pointing at Masato.
The rude guy then immediately paled after seeing Masato smiling at him.
"Uh..um..yes boss we should go to another section."
"And how about apologizing to the gentleman?" Masato said after seeing that the folks were going to another section.
The rude guy from before flinched and hurriedly apologized to the old man and caught up to his group who had somber faces.
"You seem to be quite 'popular', young man." the old man said after the group of people passed by.
"Well, you can say that we're 'acquaintances' from the academy," Masato said with a smirk.
"They caused you trouble before?" the old man asked after chuckling.
"Heh, all they do is cause trouble and let's say they had lost sight of their
path. So I showed them the correct way. Peacefully, of course."
"Haha, I should thank you then, don't I?"
"Nah, you could have taken care of them, yourself, wouldn't you?
"Hoh…so the cat's out of the bag?" the old man said.
"Yep, two things gave you away: the pressure of your mana - you can't be an ordinary person with that, and well, I've got a good instinct," Masato replied with a shrug.
"You've got sharp senses."
"But don't trust them too much though." The old man added in a serious tone.
Masato glanced at the old man and changed the topic.
"Well, where are you headed then?"
"It's not that far from here, but will still take half an hour...more if the usual stuff happens..."
Masato shrugged and responded.
"Then I guess you're already preparing some excuse for your wife? as the 'usual stuff' may actually happen today..."
The old man said with a grin.
"of course, I'm quite good at making excuses if I say so myself; a perk of being married for such a long time."
he relaxed in his seat and then added:
"Well, how about you? Where are you headed to?"
"It's the weekend and all so I'm returning home…it's near the city...you know Kendra? I'm from there."
"Name's Masato by the way." Masato introduced himself, offering his right hand out.
"oh, that quaint little town? been there before, used to take my daughter there before, when she was still willing to. Now she looks visibly disgusted when I suggested she go somewhere with me..."
the old man did that fake hurt look but still looked somewhat nostalgic...
"Anyways, this old man is called Oswald Williams." he shook Masato's hands with a grin.
Masato let off old man Ozzy's hands and had a vague feeling that he had heard the name somewhere...
'weird...where have I heard this name...? feels oddly familiar...and this old man really is quite strong.'
'Who's he anyway?'
The old man reminded him of his dad who was also stupidly strong for his age. He also remembered the times when he himself used to prank the old man.
'Hah…it's no use thinking about it…'
Oswald seemed to notice his nostalgic mood and asked:
"Got something in your mind?"
"welp, remembered how much of a nuisance I was to my old man, nothing much"
"Haha, let me tell you. your dad may appear irritated but he may still enjoy your pranks." Ozzy laughed with a sly smirk.
Misato smiled and answered.
"Yeah, if he was still around..."
The old man paused and replied with a sigh.
"I'm sorry for your loss..."
He paused for some time and asked:
"How about your mom...?"
"I don't even remember her face, dad said that she died the day I was born, and he didn't talk much about her..."
The old man had a sad look on his face but seeing Masato still being cheerful his expression returned to normal.
"It seems you've already moved on, haven't you?"
Masato said with a smile:
"Yeah, I guess I did…But let's say other's reassurances felt quite hollow during that time…"
the old man smiled and said:
"yeah, you get tired of those fairly quickly, don't you?"
Masato gave him a look
"you mean...your parents…?"
"yep, I have never seen them. Didn't know their names. I was told by people that had gone to do a mission; what and why I never knew. But hey, I've got my baby girl and a lovely wife."
The mood inside the carriage turned somber and seemingly realizing something the old man brought out a photo from thin air and showed it to him.
'Probably an artifact?' Masato thought.
There were three people in the photo; the one who looked a little younger than him and two other people…one was probably the old man's wife, and the third person was someone Masato recognized.
Ozzy pointed to the woman with blond hair with silvery eyes, wearing a long red dress that contrasted with her fair skin. She looked to be in her 30s in this photo but still had a sharp gaze. Then at the girl who seems to be around his age as mentioned by the old man. She shared the same features as her mother, except that she had a playful look compared to her mother and was wearing some expensive-looking adventurer gear with heels of all things, with a sword at her side.
"This is my wife, Venia, and my daughter Ryoko" old Ozzy grinned.
The old man looked proud of himself showing off his wife and daughter...especially his daughter...like he was telling Masato how great his daughter was.
So the infamous Ryoko was this old man's daughter?, what are the chances that I happened to take the same train out of hundreds, and even the same carriage, much less the same seat as well?*
Ryoko was a senior in his academy who was soon going to graduate. She was a "wild one" as mentioned by the old man and more...but Ryoko was also one of the few people who talked with him in the academy. while Ryoko was popular in the academy she was feared by many which led to the two of them having similar circumstances.
Masato was currently super nervous inside but tried to maintain a poker face...
however, the old man seemed to sense that something was wrong with Masato as we just stared at Ryoko's photo...
He narrowed his eyes and asked Masato suspiciously:
"Tell me brat, you don't happen to know her personally?"
Masato smirked and took a jab at the old man:
"know her? haha, we just met some time ago back at the academy and we're friends even...ha! She even told me to be careful, you know? Though, I wonder why she isn't returning with you?"
But the old man wasn't easily defeated...
"She's already old enough to take care of herself, she doesn't need this old man for everything you know? and, pray to tell, mr-oh-so-close-freinds-of-ryoko if you two really are friends as you claim to be, why, as her oh-so-loving-father hasn't heard anything about you from her?"
Though Masato wasn't a pushover either:
"heh! says the oh-so-loving-father who's nicknamed "Ozzy' of all names. Oh and did I tell you that she said that you were the most annoying person in this world?"
The old man 'Ozzy' was taken aback...
"nope, you're pulling stuff out of your ass, she would never say such things about me..."
The old man Ozzy, and Masato conversed about various topics, But it mostly revolved around the old man bragging about his daughter's accomplishments.
After some time Masato asked a question that he was quite serious about.
"Anyways, why isn't Ryoko returning home with you? Oh. Were you unable to persuade her?"
The old man who was looking out the window replied while shrugging
" You bet your ass I tried to persuade her, but she still didn't want to come with me...said she wanted to spend some time with her classmates…"
"Well, she's gonna graduate soon anyway, so give her some slack, old man." Masato said.
"Yeah, yeah. Now let me get some shut-eye for some time and wake me up when we reach the next stop."
Then the old man leaned back in his seat and closed his eyes...
Masato looked at his communicator and pulled out a holographic map and saw how much they had traveled.
At this point, they were able to see the gigantic gates connected to the walls which were made of some tough materials but people weren't counting on those to save the city from some unforeseen invasion or anything...no, it was the runes carved into them, and the energy dome that would cover the skies. This was the city of magic, Azeas, the capital of the Nylmar empire, home to millions of citizens and hundreds of awakened.