S.E. 452 (Space Era)

Our world, Lithone.

None knows how far its lands and oceans stretch.

The world the stars lingering high on the sky, lies the realm of the dreams we always indefinitely imagined.

What could possibly be at the world unknown to our kind, beyond of our rational comprehension?Perhaps it could be the gods? Or it could be the beings that even our imaginations are unable to comprehend any of them?

No matter what it could be, the realm of limitless prospects will be still remain uncharted, even to the smartest people among us.

As our world is remain undisturbed by the stars from the beyond, we will be able to seek the mysteries of the stars and other celestial bodies.

Someday in the future...

The black-haired and blue-eyed young man reads the book he found in his room with little interest of it, before closing the book and place it on the table with boredom.

"What a boring story, that kind of stuff makes no sense to me at all." The young man speaks to himself.

"The stars, huh... We just can't imagine how the realm outside looks like when we still don't know how our world looks like, though." He said before looking at the window.

"I really want to go on an adventure..." He murmurs to himself.

"...lien..."

Someone was calling him from somewhere as he was looking outside the window.

"Julien!"

The woman who is his mother opened the door and came inside his room, as he turned around to look who is coming into his room.

"What is it, mom?" Julien asked.

"I called you like, for three times! What are you doing that made you can't hear me?" His mother replied with her question.

"Oh, it's... nothing, mom. I'm just spacing out." Julien answered, much to his mother's chagrin.

"For goodness's sake, darling. I came here because your friends are looking for you, by the way. I'm worried about you because you're spacing out so much recently, you know." Julien's mother said.

"Sorry to make you worry about me." Julien apologized.

"It's fine, love. I already made your favorite corn soup for you downstairs. Go eat them while it's still hot, okay?" His mother tell him.

"Right, mom." Julien replied before coming out from his room before heading downstairs to the kitchen.

Julien takes a bowl and spoon in the cupboard and uses a ladle placed on the pot lid scoop up the corn soup his mother made, before pouring it in the bowl and have a breakfast on the dining table.

"Still delicious as ever... I like my mom's cooking." Julien speaks to himself while having a breakfast.

After finishing a meal, he took the utensils to the sink and wash his hands before leaving his home to meet up with his friends.

"Took you long enough, Julien!"

The blonde-haired girl with green eyes said with pouty face, expressing her maddening from waiting for Julien to come out for a while.

"Sorry, Amelie. I had some issues to deal with beforehand." Julien apologizes his friend.

"Well now, Amelie, no need to angry at him. We waited for him not that long though." The brown-haired young man said up.

"Yeah, I think I didn't took that long." Julien agrees.

"But he DID took too long, Murphy!" Amelie yells out.

"I get it, I get it, there's no need to yell at me like that! Good grief..." Murphy said to Amelie.

"So, why are you guys here by the way?" Julien asked his friends. His question made Amelie knew that why she and Murphy came at his house in the first place.

"Oh right! The commander of the defense force is looking for you, Julien. You're the last who're up, the commander told us." said Amelie.

"Really? Guess I take too much time then." Julien said as he scratches his head.

"We'd better get going or else we'll too late for the assembly, guys." Murphy said before he goes on first.

"Let's go, Julien! We've no time to waste!" said Amelie as she followed Murphy from behind.

Julien then follows his friends from behind to went to an assemble with the commander in the village.

In the headquarters of Pearlwood Defense Force, the members of the force are already assembled while they are waiting for Julien, Amelie and Murphy's arrival.

"Julien! You're so late, everyone's waiting for you!"

The commander of the defense force yells at Julien due to how late he was arrived at the headquarters for the daily assembly.

"My apologies for coming late, commander Joseph!" Julien apologizes the commander before he and his friends will get in the line.

When every member of the defense force has arrived, the commander then starts to speak about the tasks of today.

"For today's tasks, I'll split the force into to two groups: the first group will stay and guard the village, and another group must went to the Lyacon Forest south to Pearlwood and collect herbs for the healers." said Joseph.

"Any questions?" Joseph asked before Murphy raised his hand and asks.

"Why the another group have to go to Lyacon Forest?" asked Murphy.

"The monsters are lurking inside the forest. Do you want the defenseless townspeople to get involved in this kind of work?" Joseph replied with a question.

"Well, uh, no." answered Murphy.

"If there's no more questions, then move out!" Joseph commanded the members with loud voice before the defense force will split into two groups and went out from the headquarters. But not when Julien went to talk to the commander.

"Dad... er, commander." said Julien.

"What is it, Julien?" Joseph replied in the moment he heard his son called him.

"What group that I and my friends belong to?" asked Julien.

"You're in charge of collecting herbs at Lyacon Forest, with your friends of course." Joseph answered, but seeing his son getting nervous leading him to ask something.

"What's wrong, kid? Nervous?" asked Joseph.

"I'm not... sir." Julien replied.

"Heh heh, don't tell me you're already quaking in your boots, son. I'm not expecting too much from you since it can be a burden for your work, but you need to know that Pearlwood Defense Force does not only guard the village from bandits and thieves in each day." said Joseph. "But we also involved in helping people in the village, and it's a bad idea to leave them alone in distress when they need help."

"I understand what're you saying, sir. We can't leave people alone if they need help. But do we really need to help everyone we met?" Julien answers before asking.

"Let me tell you one thing, son. Helping others is a good choice for us human beings, but we should always know the limit of our kindness and the ability to help others." replied Joseph.

"I know, commander. That's why I asked you this." Julien answered."...I see. Well, if you've nothing to ask them go meet your friends and tell them that they're a par of the group to Lyacon Forest. Look alive, son. Dangers can always happen anytime." Joseph said.

"Understood." Julien replied before leaving the headquarters to meet with his friends.

"Hey guys, sorry for the wait." Julien tells Amelie and Murphy at the moment he went out from the headquarters.

"What'd he say to you?" asked Murphy.

"Nothing much, he told me that three of us belong to the herb collecting group as its members." said Julien.

"So we've to go to Lyacon Forest, then." Murphy confirmed.

"Wait, isn't that forest has slimes lived inside?" asked Amelie.

"Ehh, maybe. But where'd you hear that from?" Murphy asked with suspicion.

"Yesterday from the force members." Amelie replied.

"Okay... that's quite makes sense." said Murphy.

"Let's go to Lyacon Forest, guys." Julien tells his friends before he travels out from the village with them.Julien and his friends then walk down to the south of Pearlwood to go to Lyacon Forest, the small forest near the village which is their current destination. After a few minutes of traveling on foot, they have reached at Lyacon Forest.

At Lyacon Forest, Julien, Amelie and Murphy decide to meet with the group leader who commanding the members to collect the herbs for the healers of the village.

"You're arrived. I thought you were a part of the force that guards the village." said the group leader.

"The commander signs us as the part of herb collecting group today." said Julien.

"Is that so? Well, the members are gathering herbs around here. Why don't you three go gather herbs a little deeper in the forest?" The leader suggests.

"If you insist." replied Amelie.

"Be careful of the slimes in the forest too. Be careful during foraging!" said the group leader before Julien and his friends venture deeper in the forest to collect herbs.

As the three are collecting wild herbs around the forest, a sound of the bushes in the forest rustling was heard.

"Hey... did you guys hear that?" Murphy asked when he heard rustling sounds.

"Hm? No, I didn't hear anything." said Amelie.

"Are you hearing things?" asked Julien.

*rustle*

"I swear I'm not. Don't you hear that, guys?" Murphy asked Amelie and Julien again after hearing that sound again.

"...I think I hear it now." said Julien when he heard rustling sounds.

The rustling sounds from bushes in the forest become louder and louder as something inside them get closer to the three. After that, the rustling sound faints and reveals the monsters coming out from the bushes.

"Slime?" Amelie surprised when she found out the entities behind the rustling sounds.

"That's the one the commander told me!" said Julien when he saw green-colored slimes.

"Are they aggressive?" asked Murphy.

After Murphy asked his friends, the slimes aggressively jiggling themselves as if they have responded to what he asked.

"Well, looks like they aren't friendly at all." Julien said before taking his sword out from the sheath.

"I shouldn't asked something like that earlier." said Murphy as he take out his sword.

"Here they come, guys!" Amelie warns Julien and Murphy before the battle initiates.

Julien runs toward the slime at the left while Murphy runs toward the slime at the right and the both start attacking them, as Amelie starting to cast her spell.

"O magical power... Magical Shot!!" Amelie casts her spell and fires a bolt of magic power in front of her as it directed to the slime Julien attacking.

"How about this?!" Julien performs a jumping upward slash at the monster he currently facing in battle and he defeated it with a single sword swipe.

"Take this!" Murphy thrusts his sword forward to stab a slime and grips the weapon two-handed before performs an upward slash that slightly lifts the monster up into the midair, killing it instantly.

"You're finished!" Julien runs and charges towards the remaining monster and thrusts the sword into its body with full force, killing it in process.

"That was close..." said Amelie as she fell onto the ground, sitting with exhaustion.

"That's Lyacon Forest for you, those pesky slimes can attack us when we're unguarded." said Murphy.

"Yeah, we'd better careful. For now, let's take the herbs back to the village." said Julien as he and his friends walk out from the area to meet with the group leader at the forest's entrance.

"Hey, you're back. You guys got a lot of herbs too, nice job!" said the group leader.

"We found the slimes in the forest, and we already killed them." said Murphy.

"You wha--Well isn't that great? The villagers are complaining about the slimes in the forest recently. You three do very well." The leader compliments Julien and his friends.

"Alright, people! We have gathered enough herbs for the healers, fall in line and return to village at once!" The leader immediately commands the members gathering the herbs in Lyacon Forest.

"Yes sir!"

All the members of the collection group take the foraged wild herbs with them before traveling back to Pearlwood, with Julien and his friends follow the group's members in line as the last three members. But during their way back to the village, the signal flare was mysteriously shot up to the sky from the center of the village by someone, all the members of herb collection group noticed the flare as they turn their head to look at it.

"A flare?" said one of the group's members.

"What the...? Oh no! The village's under attack!" Amelie shocked when she noticed the flare, as well as the others who knew the sign of the signal flare.

"We've to go! Hurry!" said Julien as he ran towards the village with the herb basket in hand, before his friends and other members of the group follow him from behind.

Upon their arrival at Pearlwood, the another group of defense force is fighting against the raiding bandits. At the moment Julien's group has arrived, the leader of the another group instantly came to meet them.

"Good to see y'all here! The bandits raided the village when y'all aren't here, we need more people to fend them off! Hurry!" said the leader of another group before the members of herb collection will place their baskets and face off the bandits.

"Julien, Amelie, and Murphy too! We'll take care of the bandits, you three go and take care of their leader!" The another group leader tells them before heading off to assist the defense force in fighting the bandits, leaving the three to find the bandit leader by themselves.

"We can't let them attack our village like this, especially when we aren't here!" said Julien.

"We've to find the bandit leader and beat them up right away!" said Amelie.

"Let's find their leader before they'll able to run away!" said Murphy.Julien, Amelie and Murphy ventured throughout Pearlwood to seek for the bandit leader, only to find the members of Pearlwood Defense Force are fending off the raiding bandits all the way they run. As they run straight through the village's path, they found the bandit leader who is looking at the treasure their underlings collected.

"Heh heh, look at these ornaments. No wonder why Pearlwood always raided by us bandits. Bahahaha!" said the bandit leader.

"If we sold all of this commodities, we'll become rich in no time! Hahaha!" The bandit leader talks to himself, not noticing that Julien and his friends are arrived.

"Stop right there, criminal scum!" said Julien as he readies his sword.

"What the hell?! Where're my underlings, don't tell me they're all beaten up?!" The bandit leader shocked as he noticed Julien and friends.

"You betcha! Now it's your turn to surrender!" said Amelie.

"As if I'm going to surrender, you little brats!" The bandit leader speaks angrily before taking out the sword.

"We're not brats, we're the official defense force, I'll have you know!" said Julien.

"And we're not going to get beaten by a stupid loser like you!" Murphy mocks the bandit leader.

"Yeah! I bet you're as strong as you be to last in battle even few minutes!" Amelie mocks the bandit leader further.

"What did you say?! Y'all're going down!!" The bandit leader rushes in and attacks Julien with his sword.

*swish* *clang*

But Julien blocks the enemy's attack with the sword in the moment of a blink of an eye.

"Amelie!" Julien calls his friend to attack the enemy.

"Right! O magical power... Magical Shot!!" Amelie incantates her spell before launching a bolt of magic towards the bandit leader to attack them.

"Ouch! Why you little...!" The bandit leader takes the attack Amelie used which damages him before rushing with speed and attack her.

*SCHWING!*

"Aah!!" Amelie cries out in pain as she got attacked by the bandit leader.

"Amelie!" Julien shocked when he saw his friend got attacked by an enemy.

"Julien! Let's attack him together!" said Murphy as he dashes towards the bandit leader, holding the sword two-handed tight.

"Hey, that might do it!" Julien agrees as he charges towards the enemy.Julien and Murphy dashes towards the enemy with all night, preparing the attack the bandit leader in unison!

"Take this!!" Julien and Murphy jump at towards the enemy as they raise their swords above their heads to strike them with all their might. But...

*CLANG!!*

"Whoa, there!" The bandit leader blocks their attacks with their sword before swinging the sword after blocking, sending both Julien and Murphy back away forcefully.

"Arrgh!!" Julien cries out as he stumbled onto the ground.

"Ugh!!" Murphy cries along with he was rolling on the ground as his attack was parried.

"Magical bullet, strike down my enemy... Magical Shot!!" Amelie incantates the same spell to attack the bandit leader, but with the injury she taken before caused the bolt to scrape the enemt's body.

"*pant* This guy's strong..." said Amelie as she's panting.

"Ugh... this guy's way too tough." said Murphy.

"Bah. Worthless brats like you deserved this." said the bandit leader as they walk towards Julien as they raise their sword, "Now... DIE!"

The bandit leader swings their sword down with full might, hoping to kill Julien before the others. Julien shuts his eyes as he ultimately accepts his fate. But at that moment, something suddenly happened...

*SHWING!!*

"Urgh?!" The bandit cries out in pain as they knocked away to the ground by someone, which is revealed as Joseph that strikes down the enemy.

"Commander?!" Julien is surprised when he found the commander.

"Get up. This isn't the place you going to die." said Joseph before Julien and his friends slowly stands up.

"How dare you...!" The bandit leader said in anger as they stand up after knocked down to the ground. After getting up, the enemy rushes towards Joseph as they readied to swing their sword to attack the enemy.

"Commander!" said Julien when he saw the enemy running towards Joseph and...

*CLANG!*

...blocks the enemy's attack in just a right moment.

"Eat this! Spirit Smash!!" Joseph performs his special art by channeling his inner energy and swings his sword to release the wave of energy towards the bandit leader, damaging the enemy with his attack.

"Commander!" said Murphy as he is surprised by the special art used by the commander.

"Now, you three!" Joseph tells Julien and his friends to attack the bandit leader when the enemy is currently wide open for taking their attacks!

"How's this?!" said Julien as he uses his sword to strike the enemy's weapon out from their hand and slashes to the right at the enemy's body.

"Try this on!" Murphy rushes in after Julien has attacked the bandit leader and swings his sword to the left to attack the enemy at the moment his attack range reaches at the right proximity.

"O magical power... Magical Shot!!" Amelie casts her spell and fires a bolt of magical power that directs to the bandit leader, strucking them which causes damage to the enemy.

"You're dead!!" The bandit leader rushes towards Julien as the opening chance was found, clenching their fist as they prepare to punch him.

"Shockwave Rush!!" Joseph intercepts at the gap between Julien and the bandit leader before swings his sword, creating shockwaves along the ground in the path of sword swing!

"Air Slice!!" Joseph uses his special art involving him to swing the sword upwards as it releases a cutting wave of vacuum from the force of a sword along the ground after using Shockwave Rush. The vacuum wave dashes towards the enemy with speed before struck at the bandit leader as it disappears!

"Argh!!" The bandit leader cries out in pain as they knocked back away by the commander's special art.

"D-Damn it! These guys're too strong!" The bandit leader takes their sword back as they are struggling in back away from the commander and members of Pearlwood Defense Force.

"Retreat! Retreat, guys!!" The bandit leader takes the bag filled with the treasures their group plundered from earlier before quickly running away from the village.

"Wait for us, boss!!" The bandits hurrily run away from the village as they followed their leader who scrammed before anyone with haste, without looking back ever again.

"They're taking away their treasure!" said Amelie as she was looking at the bandits whose running away from them and their village. But Joseph decided to stop her from following after them.

"Let them go. At this rate we won't able to catch up with them, Amelie." said the commander.

"But...!" Amelie disagrees with Joseph's opinion of not to chase after the bandits, which Julien and even Murphy agree with him.

"It's like the commander said, we can't chase after them right now." Julien told Amelie, much to her annoyance.

"Next time if they came here again, I'll beat them up for sure!" Amelie said when determination.

"Haha, I appreciate your zealousness, lady. But the bandits wouldn't going to raid our village for now. Let's get those herbs you gathered from the forest to the healers." said Joseph before Julien and his friends will walk back to where they were from and pick up their herb baskets.

"Everyone, take the herbs we gathered to the healers at once!" Julien commands the defense force in the village.

"Roger!"

The members of Pearlwood Defense Force went to the healers' infirmary to turn in the herbs and wild herbs they have collected from Lyacon Forest. The healers seem to be very pleased for the defense force's today feats.

"Thank you, kids. This is going to be a good use for weeks." One of the healers thank the defense force members.

"You're welcome, miss." said Julien.

"Tell us anytime if you guys need our help." Murphy said with joy.

"Ooh, you guys're so suave." Amelie jokingly compliments her friends, but Julien did not quite like it much in contrast to how Murphy feels.

"Let's return to the headquarters and meet the commander." said Murphy.

"Yeah, let's hear out what he'll said." Julien said as he walks out from the village's infirmary with his friends to return to the headquarters of the defense force.

In the defense force headquarters, all the members fall in line as the commander stands up after reading the documents on the workdesk.

"Good job, everyone. The herb supplies for the healers are enough for few weeks and we're able to drove off the bandits. Though we're unable to retrieve back the villagers' treasures from them, but let's call it a day." said Joseph.

"Alright, everybody! Dismiss! Have a good day and safe travels!" The command of dismission has spoken aloud by the commander before the members of the defense force will split up and went out from the headquarters one by one.

"Well, see ya later Julien." said Murphy as he waves his hand as a goodbye before went out from the headquarters.

"I'll be going now, come meet me if you need my help, okay?" Amelie tells Julien.

"Yeah, I'll call you and Murphy if I need something." replied Julien.

"Well then, toodles!" Amelie joyfully says goodbye to Julien and leave from the headquarters almost immediately. Leaving Julien and the commander in the headquarters alone.

"Dad, I've a favor to ask you for a little." Julien tells the commander about something.

"What's that, Julien? A favor?" asked Joseph.

"I'd like to go on an adventure, staying in the village day by day bores me out." Julien said with bored face, showing that how much boredom he has faced in each day at Pearlwood.

"An adventure, huh? That took me back in the old days..." said Joseph as he reminisce of the adventures before.

"I don't know what adventures you've faced before, dad. But I just only need the answer from you if you'd allow me to go to an adventure or not." said Julien.

"Well, about that. I think..." Joseph pauses before continues speaking. "We have to ask Millia first if she's gonna let you or not."

"Ergh, seriously? Mom won't going to let me go on an adventure, you know that?" Julien said with great level of disappointment.

"*sigh*... I'll try find a way to talk to her tonight. You'll see tomorrow if she's going to let you or not, I hope she'd listen to my good reasoning." said Joseph as he lets out a sigh.

"That's a promise then, dad. Let's go home." Julien said expressionlessly.

"You go first, I've little more work to do. I'll follow you home after that." Julien's dad said before he went to arrange the documents on the workdesk.

"Well, if you insist." said Julien before he will walk towards the door and open it to walk out from the headquarters, leaving his father to do his work before heading back home.

At night in his room, Julien was wondering that if his father will be able to convince his mother for allowing him to go on an adventure outside the village. As he was deep in thought about what he told his father, he looked outside the window to watch the stars on the night sky. While looking at the stars, he thought of something inside his mind.

'Please let my mom agrees with my dad in letting me go on an adventure, please.' Julien thought before sarcastically laughing silently.

"Haha, to think that I've to wish upon the stars... What a weird thing to do, myself." said Julien as he thought after make a wish in his mind.

He slowly walks towards his bed and drop himself onto it, and thought of the events happened today as he lying down to look at the ceiling of his room.

'Man, I'm bored. I wish I've something more exciting to do.' Julien thought.

'Well, that's enough for today. Time to get some sleep.' As his thoughts slowly fading away from his mind, his eyes are slowly shutting down from the exhaustion he had worked for all day by themselves. And before he knew it, he already had fallen asleep on his bed.

The quiet night after his boring day has passed as if he thought that nothing were happened. What Julien had always thought since before the night is, the answer of his mother going to give him in the next day.