No longer in the mood to do the mission she got out of the alley and was headed back to the guild station, the family of the deceased wailed as they wrapped him in loin cloth and carried away the body as people consoled and sympathized with them . The strong stench of blood made some people light headed and others throw up , looking at the distraught appearance of the people she thought deeply about the words of the prophet said earlier ' trying to sacrifice the lives of innocent people by going on a dangerous quest just to please a hypocrite of a god ' she thought not caring about bringing the wrath of the so called god upon herself.
This town was filled with simple and honest people who had no experience in going on dangerous conquests or have the ability to protect themselves with the exception of some bounty warriors and mercenaries who are from higher districts of the Ural empire passing through the town to perform missions, except for that nothing about this town screams power or threat .
To make matters even more annoying the higher districts had capable warriors and strong awakened who could go on this mission or better still those incarnates who 'claim' to be the rebirth of god's, but they still come to this lowly town and order civilians to lay down their lives on a quest all for their selfish greed.
The next day the town was still in a state of unease and everyone was gloom the once lively town had become as silent cemetery,a group of calvary knights from the other day was dispatched to go to the guild station to start with the registration of suitable candidates and were ordered to use brute force when no one came to register. Madoka who came to register saw her team members after not seeing them for two days, they also came to register for an unknown reason pulling down her hoodie she mixed in with the crowd to create some distance between them and started waiting for the registration to start.
"Sir a lot of them are here to sign up so how should we go about it" said a calvary knight to the head knight
"Choose an acceptable amount of awakened but don't make it outnumber the unawakened to avoid suspicion" the head knight said to the junior knight no one knowing the content of their conversation .
After assessing everyone the leader of the calvary knight finally chose twenty people which included madoka,her team members, the group of bounty warriors and mercenaries who she had eavesdropped in on the other day and seven other people who passed the assessment. Among the twenty people twelve of them were awakened and eight unawakened including madoka herself , glancing at the faces of the unawakened she could see the uncertainty and fear of not returning from this mission the awakened on the other hand had prideful faces as if they had already completed the mission and brought back the sacred eye.
" Alright all of you will meet here in two days time bring everything you will need ,all awakened please stay behind" the calvary leader said as he dismissed them, looking at the group of prideful awakened following the knights to a room she thought it was weird
"They are probably going to be given better treatment than us" a scrawny young man said he packed up to leave the guild station the rest of them nodded in agreement as they all left the guild station, glancing at the closed door for the last time she really wanted to know that topic of their discussion and why the non awakened were not allowed to join this meeting, putting this thought behind her she left the guild station.
Walking back to the tavern she roughly packed her necessities into a small carry-on bag the upon seeing that she still needed some supplies she glanced at the bag which was about to burst with necessities and sighed dreamily at the thought of having a space purse. Making a rough list she headed into town to get the remaining items she will need went to the market square.
"Madoka what are you hear to buy " hearing this question she turned around to see old man Qui jun out it the market square, this was the first time she saw him outside the guild so she was pleasantly surprised and told him her reason of coming to the market and while showing him her tattered carry on bag
"Don't you have a space purse" he asked looking at the poor bag which looked like one more item added with be it's demise ,she shook her head in embarrassment you could not blame her the space rings and purses were insanely expensive reaching astronomical amount of a hundred gold coins for one ring or purse. He looked at her in silence for a while and asked her to follow him .
The two walked all the way to his house and she was surprised at how such a beautiful house could be found in the twelfth district,the house in front of her was simple but very homely the house was a little further away from the other houses and was tucked away in the arms of nature with tall mighty trees which seems to tell tales of the forest ,bright coloured beautiful flowers grown along the path and in front of the entrance of the house , creeping plants crept along the outer walls of the house all along the roof ,the lyrical chirping of birds and the chattering of the wood land creatures added an enchanting and mystical feel to the house.
Inviting her into his humble abode he ushered her to a seat ,' it smells like flowers and tea in here ' she thought as she looked around, the inside was clean and furnished looking over a shelf she saw a portrait of a beautiful woman with long dark hair and smiling eyes holding a young girl of three to five years old and standing by them was a man who looked like the younger version of old man Qui jun.
"Here you go "he said handing her a cup of warm fairy nectar tea and sitting opposite her
"Thank you"she said accepting the mug
"So why did you decide to go on this quest"he asked her after analyze her for a while, take a sip of the sweet flowery drink she calmly replied
" Being a witness to the incident the other day I just can't sit back and see this town get corrupted and destroyed by the prophet and something tells me there is more to it than meets the eye and I want to know what" she continued "people like him disgust me, hiding behind the face of power to make the lives of the people they swore to protect a living nightmare while the enjoy themselves in their fancy estates throwing flashy parties not caring at all about the reason they were blessed with those abilities, and the gods who the people have faith in and devote their trust in even though they still go through these inhuman standards of living have turned their backs on them"
"You sound like you don't have much faith in the gods "he said after picking up a few things from what she just said
"I would like to rely on myself than a some random entity just because I'm told to do so" she said while looking into the nearly half emptied mug.
He started at her intensely and stood up going upstairs, taking a few minutes he came back down with a wood box in his hand, the small box was in no way bulky and had delicate carvings on it and was covered in a thin layer of dust due to it being stored away for a very long time.
"Here" he said handing the box over to her , reaching out cautiously she took it and asked what it was
"Well open it" he said with a smile, hearing this instruction she cautiously did so .
She gasped in surprise when she saw the content within the box, inside the box was two twin daggers with cold sharp blades which glowed with a reddish hue, made from unknown material with golden handles and the design of a dragon wrapping around it ,the daggers looked expensive and any weapon master could tell that these could be a deadly darling of any close range fighter, and the also looked expensive to , there was also a ring in the corner of the box which was a dull metal colour due to not being cleaned and upon closer inspection she found out that it was a space ring , putting it back in the box she pushed the box towards him
"I cannot accept this"she said wait a jolted tone ,he raised an eyebrow and asked why not to which she replied that these were too expensive to be to her and how they are of sentimental value to him
" Well I insist"he said pushing the wooden box back to her, hesitating to take it she finally took it under the persuading eyes of the old man.
"I will definitely return it when I get back"she said in an affirmative tone, he waved his hand to casually dismiss her.
The two of the had a lively conversation for a while after which she bowed and thanked him again and left to continue stocking up on her supplies and the thought of finally owning a rented space ring filled her with excess vigor , heading into the town she finally spent her money without any qualms.
' Having a space really is convenient' she thought as she placed her items into the ring.