Nathan walked quietly through the city of Kalioed. It was the weekend, and it was his day off. During the whole week he had been taking care of Erina, which made him feel so exhausted that he could hardly stand up without any support.
So when the weekend came, he didn't hesitate to rest all day Saturday and go for a walk on Sunday. He wanted to know how different Kalioed was compared to Radford, and it was only after a short walk that he realized the difference.
Both cities were quite peaceful, but in Kalioed the people were much more open to interaction. Nathan knew that this was because there were no foreigners in Kalioed, because there were only natives from the northern islands.
Another thing that Nathan noticed when he walked through the streets of Kalioed was that there were many more people with essence than in Radford, or at least that is what it seemed at first glance.
Nathan remembered the black market in Radford. That was the place where all the mercenaries, who all had essence, gathered. But in Kalioed there were no mercenaries, and Nathan did not know if there was a black market.
Since there were no mercenaries, most people with essence lived as normal civilians. Working normally as any other person would.
However, there were also many groups of soldiers patrolling the streets, unlike Radford. This made Nathan think that there were things going on behind the scenes without the population knowing about it.
In any case, Nathan continued walking until at some point and without realizing it, everything around him changed. As if by fate, he arrived in the slums of Kalioed, which surprised him completely.
He had lived almost six months in the outskirts of Radford, and the difference was simply visible. The streets were clean and there were almost no people begging or on drugs.
You could tell how little some of them had, but that didn't make them unhappy. Suddenly some children ran up to Nathan and passed him while they continued to play.
Nathan stood still and watched the children pass by. Unwillingly, memories of his days living in the factories with Lira and the other children flashed in his mind.
'How different would things have been if the outskirts of Radford were the same as Kalioed?' Nathan wondered as he watched the children play without worrying about surviving the day.
Even if they were poor, there were organizations especially dedicated to caring for infants. Dozens of orphanages existed both in the slums, making sure everyone had equal opportunities.
'Why is Radford so different?" asked Nathan again as he continued walking.
While it was called the Aeterna territory, the ones in true control were the government. Nathan never knew why, but even as a mere child, he could see the times when his father met with the top brass of the government.
Suddenly Nathan heard a noise near him and observed what was going on.
"I told you not to show your face around here!" shouted a woman as she watched a pair of guards forcibly eject a man from the premises.
"Get lost before I change my mind!" the woman shouted again before she and the guards entered.
Nathan looked at the man lying on the floor massaging his back in pain and then looked at the premises.
'It's a brothel...' Nathan thought and looked again at the man who had stood up and was walking towards an alley on the opposite side of the street with a gloomy expression while muttering something.
Nathan concentrated and enhanced his hearing sense to hear what the man was whispering.
"Fucking bitches... How dare they fuck with me like that!" the man growled before disappearing into the alley.
Nathan sighed and a slight smile appeared on his face. 'There are still conflicts'
As he was about to continue walking, he suddenly felt a slight burst of essence from the same alley the man had gone from and frowned.
'What happened?' Nathan wondered as he walked towards the alley.
It was none of his business to pry into what was going on, but he went to investigate anyway.
He had no doubt that some patrol would arrive if any warning was made, but it would be delayed and who knew what might happen in that time.
When Nathan was about to enter the alley, the man suddenly came out again as if nothing had happened, but Nathan could feel the uncontrolled essence inside the man's body.
He quickly hid so that the man would not see him. His hiding place was obvious, but the man did not bother to look around and headed for the brothel.
Nathan flowed essence into his eyes and looked at the man, only to be shocked at the amount of negative energy coming from his body.
'...He has an incredibly deep hatred' Nathan didn't know how bad the man felt as soon as he had been thrown out of the brothel, but he knew that such emotions were difficult to feel without any influence.
By coincidence, Nathan noticed the man's neck. His veins were dyed black and were beginning to spread toward his face. Nathan looked back into the alley.
'Something definitely happened' he thought remembering the explosion of essence a few moments ago.
In the time he thought that the man had reached the entrance to the brothel.
"Open up dammit!" the man shouted with unbridled fury as the veins in his face began to turn completely black.
The doors opened and out came one of the guards who had thrown him out earlier. "We warned you not to come back... What?!" the guard shouted when he saw the man's face, but before he was even able to react, the man grabbed him by the neck and threw him out into the street.
Nathan watched as the guard rolled to a stop and quickly stood up holding his neck in pain. The guard had no essence whatsoever, so fighting the man was impossible.
The problem came when the man had no essence before he entered the alley, but now he had so much that it began to overflow from his body.