The job, as introduced to them, wasn't difficult or exhausting. They were told to rearrange the location of various objects, clean up the area, sell tickets, guide the audience on the day of the show, and keep the theater in good shape until the end of the show.
Their employer was a chubby middle-aged man with a short height and a small beard. He was delighted upon seeing them and was very friendly with all his employees. They were familiarized with the working hours, the payment, and their responsibilities at first before immediately being deployed to work. They were each given a responsibility and sent to different places to take action. It seemed that these people desperately lacked manpower.
Humming under his lips and moving around with light footsteps, Ian delightfully folded the untidy clothes, using his rich experience as a hardworking slave while putting extra care into the job.
The sun shone brighter today for some reason and the weather was nice. The repetitive footsteps of him and Eleen in the background felt pleasant to the ears and the task was enjoyable. His day couldn't be any greater.
"Umm... Sorry..."
The peace of the room was shattered by a feeble voice, causing the two to cease their work and turn to the source.
"Is someone there?"
A little girl jumped out from behind the clothes rack at Eleen's question, clad in numerous pieces of clothing that didn't seem to match at all, hugging a doll.
"Why did you come to work here?"
Eleen gave a tilt to her head at the sudden strange question that came from an unknown child.
"Well, they paid well so we applied for the job."
"Is that so...? Didn't you hear anything about us before taking the job?"
"Hmm? No. We are travelers and have just arrived at this city."
The little girl lowered her head, her lips drawing a downward arc, pouting.
"Why? Is something on your mind?"
With a gentle smile plastered to her face, Eleen bent her back, leaning closer to the child's face. She was around 7, a girl with soft facial features.
"Mmmm... I thought maybe those bad lies were finally gone and new people joined us, but it seems not..."
"Bad lies?"
Putting down the clothes in his arms, Ian also walked closer to the girl who was muttering in a low voice with his curiosity perked up.
"Mhm! Wherever we go, people start talking badly about us and about Dad, it makes me so sad..."
Turns out the child was their employer's daughter, the owner of a wandering drama cast who traveled from city to city to perform.
"They say that our theater is cursed and haunted! No one comes to work for us anymore. A lot of people left us as well. Dad is so worried all the time!"
According to the girl, there was a rumor circling around the cities regarding the incidents that have happened in this theater in the past few months. It seemed like quite a number of unordinary phenomena were told to have occurred wherever this group settled, starting from unnatural movements of the objects to the sudden disappearance of people; so their reputation has plumped down significantly.
"They say that our cast is cursed with a ghost!"
Ian and Eleen exchanged glances.
"Do such things actually happen?"
At Eleen's question, the child gave the two new employees a dubious look.
"Ah? But you guys will also leave if I tell you about them!"
"But you've already explained so much."
The little girl, who had naively uttered out the supposed secrets, widened her eyes at the realization as she covered her mouth, taken aback. Her gaze shifted between the two as she took a tiny step back. Without uttering any more words, the child turned around and ran to the exit.
"Hey, wait! It's okay. We won't leave!"
The doctor chased behind the little girl while calling for her to slow down but before Eleen could finish her sentence, the child had already run out of the room at a surprising speed.
"Ouch!"
"Oww!"
Bumping into someone as soon as she set foot out of the room, Eleen stumbled and fell down along the other figure. Fallen beside her was another girl and a large number of colorful clothes.
"Uh, I'm so sorry!"
As Ian approached the two to help out, Eleen got up and bowed as an apology. The other girl, who was unfortunate enough to be behind the door when the little child was rushing out, glanced at the bag of clothes, now thrown to the other side of the hall upside down, then looked back at Eleen.
"Okay."
Without much change to her round and young face, the girl, who seemed to be around 15 or so, moved up and began putting the fallen clothes back into the bag.
"Uh, I'll also help!"
Ian joined the two to gather the clothes, feeling uneasy watching them. With the three of them working together, everything was gathered back up in less than a minute.
"Thanks."
The young girl's gaze wandered around, her voice as fleeting as the midnight breeze; quiet, hard to hear. She lowered her head, oddly bending her tall figure as she walked past the due to enter the room and place the bag in its spot.
"...."
She stood there for a second before her black pupils shifted back to Ian and Eleen. She pointed at the bag with a finger.
"...."
"....Shall we tidy them up as well?"
"Yes."
The young girl nodded at Ian, strode back to the door, and exited without a word, clearly indicating that her task was accomplished.
"Uh... She was kind of strange..."
Muttering, Eleen shook her head and resumed her work.
Their work was finished by lunchtime thus the group, scattered all around doing different chores, gathered back up to have their meals. Unfortunately for them, their employer wasn't responsible for their food and thus, they had to eat out.
"I don't know why, but everyone keeps looking strangely at me wherever I go!"
As soon as they met up, Alaric lowered his voice to whisper. The other three scanned their surroundings before each adding up.
"Same."
"Me too. I even encountered the boss's daughter and she said strange stuff."
"Don't mind the others and just do your job. Ghost stories have always been popular for no reason."
Alaric jolted up as soon as those words left Ian's mouth.
"Ghost stories?"
"Nevermind. Order the food."
"Hey!"
Despite his furious glare, Alaric did as he was told and raised his hand to wave at the waitress standing at the other side of the restaurant. The woman rushed to their side upon noticing their call.
"What's your order?"
It was a familiar low-pitched voice and round black pupils with a tinge of crimson whirling within them.
"Huh? Aren't you the girl from before?"
The teenager's lips gaped a little bit at the face of the familiar figures before she nodded her head.
"So what's your order?"
"...."
The mood that had wavered for an instant changed back to how it was.
Alaric looked at the others and then at the girl. No one had any idea what kind of food was served in this city or which was good.
"Anything you'd recommend?"
So he asked the waitress for help.
"No."
"Oh."
Silence filled the area. Alaric, having reached the end of his pre-determined dialogues, couldn't speak any further and stared at Ian, opening and closing his lips like a dead fish.
"Bring us something with a medium price."
The girl pursed her lips at the answer, jotted down the order, and left the table. Watching her leave, Eleen leaned close, uttering in a low voice.
"Wasn't she working at the theater just now?"
Instead of an answer to her question, Alaric opened a whole new topic.
"I could sense mana from her."
Three pairs of eyes shifted to him.
"Mana?"
"Do you mean that she is a mage?"
"Sigh!" Ian shook his head from side to side. "It's none of our business whether someone has mana or not."
She was a random girl they'd met for two brief moments. There was no point in discussing unnecessary information about strangers whom they'd never encounter after leaving the city.
"Can you stop acting like a retired grandpa for a second?"
"..."
But it seemed that his fellow travelers were too young and immature to understand his point yet. What could he do but sigh to himself and watch them tire themselves out with useless conversations? Whatever, they'd get used to things once they pass a few more cities and get accustomed to traveling around.
"Wasn't her pupils also kind of strange? They were two-colored!"
"Rather than two-colored, it seemed to me that there was a slight hue to them. I read in one of my textbooks that in some people, mana can bring about physical changes such as a shift in eyes or hair color."
"Oohhh you seem to be studying hard, master Alaric."
Rather than whether the girl is a mage or not...
'Isn't she too young to have two jobs in a day or maybe more than that?'
The girl seemed to be a local of this city judging by the fact that she was a waitress in the restaurant, so she must've heard of whatever bad reputation that theater crew has. Despite that, she'd applied for the job. Is she that desperate for money? Young folks shouldn't overwork them so early in their lives!
'Mhm. None of my business!'
Ian took out a pen and tiny notebook from his pocket while reminding himself not to overthink other people's lives.
-Uh, it's that notebook again!
Lior, sitting atop Ian's lap, poked his head up from under the table and peeked at the notebook Ian was holding.
-Yes, so please close your eyes.
-Nooo! Why is it that every time you write something on this, I have to move away or close my eyes? It should be empty now since you've regressed, right? Do you actually memorize the things you've written before and copy them again after regressing? Master, please let me take a look, pleaseeee!!
Ian gently patted the wolf's head as he chuckled at his whining and protest.
-It's called respecting others privacy. This is something personal so you can't read it.
He didn't know how many times has he repeated this sentence over the years. The child huffed and jumped down, rushing to rest its body on Alaric's lap instead. After making sure that he had left, Ian opened the notebook and picked up his pen.
This habit of him was truly embarrassing. He hoped that no one ever read the contents of this notebook and for it to be eternally destroyed if he was to ever lose it. Despite feeling endless shame every time he picked up this notebook, he just couldn't quit.
'What date was it today?'
He considered for a second before jotting down the day and year and even the time. He calculated something in his mind next and wrote it down beside the date. A smile had bloomed on his lips without him noticing.
Ian closed the notebook out of fear that he might actually end his life here if his eyes ever landed on the words written inside, and put it in his pocket.
Their food arrived soon; it was delicious and filling as well as reasonable in price. They had no more work to do in the evening so they were free. Despite Eleen's suggestion to stroll the market and window shopping, they all returned to their inn as they didn't have any money to spend.
The next day passed smoothly with the group working in the theater in the morning and resting at night. It was a fruitful time for the whole group as they had the leisure to train themselves and improve.
Even though Ian told them not to interfere with the matters of a foreign land, the group just couldn't contain their curiosity and began going around and asking questions form the citizens. According to Alaric and Eleen's "Investigations", a few incidents started to happen for the cast a few months ago.
At first, it was the objects that started to move without there being any visible cause to it, then things began to disappear. They suspected that there was a thief among them, but no one was found guilty after days of investigation. As if that wasn't enough, more horrendous events came to be, such as the sudden death of one of the crew members due to an illness that wasn't discovered thus far, or the disappearance of one actor's newborn baby. Fortunately, the child was found soon enough, but the actor resigned from the cast out of fear; so did many others.
"No no, it's a misunderstanding. That person didn't die due to illness but they are still being treated. They just stopped working."
"Really? But I heard they even buried her body somewhere hidden?!"
"Nah, no way!"
Even the people of the town didn't know the details.
That was actually none of their business. Ian didn't know how many times he'd repeated that sentence and how many times he got ignored. Youngsters enjoyed horror stories, after all, there was no stopping them.
Kieran was always busy swinging his sword till late at night whenever they had free time. The action itself seemed too boring and tiresome to the other three, but the swordsman seemed to enjoy every moment of it. Alaric also studied a lot. He was buried under piles of papers and books the whole evening and practiced his studies late at night. There would be instances of sudden bursts of fire or random flashes at night, giving Ian and Eleen a freak every time. They couldn't afford to break any furniture in the inn after all.
Ian spent his evenings meditating in order to regain his Aether. To his surprise, he was making quite a progress. The amount of holy power stored in his soul increased rapidly and fast. He couldn't tell if he was to consider this as a good thing or a bad one.
"This is the last day. We'll finally be paid, I'm so excited!"
Alaric was slightly hopping up and down while walking. The baby wolf stationed atop Alaric's head was doing the same.
Ah, children... These children...
Ian shifted his gaze away from the overjoyed due and back to the stage. Two people were immersed in their rules, engaged in shouting their dialogues in front of the heated crowd.
"O love, oh the essence that burns my soul with its heat. O, what a pleasant heat."
It was a love story they were playing and it seemed they were at the peak of the tale.
"...Huh?"
It was just then. A chilly sensation engulfed Ian's body, making him shiver for an instant. The alarms in his mind rang out almost instantly and his instincts shouted something in his ears.
There was something unnatural here.
"Argh? Aaah?"
The actor bent his back after finishing his lines, clutching his chest and letting out a gasp in a display of pain, as if he was actually burning with the fires of love.
"Wait, stop them!"
Ian's shout though, came a little bit late.
"AAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHH!!!"
An earsplitting scream rang out in the whole area as the actor fell down to the ground like melting butter.
It wasn't known when his body got caught in a fire.