“Dan! Is everything okay?!” A raspy voice sounded from behind the door. The voice which reeked of old age was full of concern, and Mane could tell that whoever it was thought highly of Dan.
“I’m fine, Old Fan,” Dan opened the wooden door to reveal three figures. Two of the visitors were young, and the last person was an old man. All of them were fair skinned, and standing next to Dan was like looking at night and day standing side by side. The old man held a wooden stick on which he entrusted to bear his weight. His back was hunched, and his head was full of gray hair. His wrinkled face looked kind, and his smile gave one a feeling of comfort. Mane’s first thought seeing the man was, “He looks so kind.”The younger ones behind him shared a bit of resemblance with the old man. They were a young handsome boy, and a beautiful and naïve looking girl. The boy wasn’t as tall as Mane, but he wasn’t far off. He had“Who is that twerp,” Mane ignored the approaching group and turned to question Lam who stood on his left? Lam and Lily stopped walking, so Mane stopped as well.“The Village Head’s son,” Lam took some time to answer, likely startled by the fact that Mane called the son of the Village Head a twerp. Unlike his earlier smiling demeanor, Lam was back to his strict expression. His eyes as he looked at the approaching group were cold and expressionless. Like millennium old ice tempered by the waters of Cocytus, Lam’s gaze sought to freeze the incoming group over.“He doesn’t seem to like you much,” Mane smiled, noticing Lam’s change. It seemed that Lam was the kind of person who was generous and outspoken to those he liked, and repulsive and cold to those he disliked.“The feeling is mutual,” Lam answered calmly. Beneath that layer of calm was a bubbling lake of anger. But Lam’s feminine voi
“This place is huge,” Mane marveled at the simple yet gorgeous structures that filled the village! Since he had never left Dan’s place, he didn’t know much about the village. But this little sightseeing session with the twins allowed him to see a lot of things. Although the houses in the village were simple, they were exquisitely made. The streets were narrow, but were beautifully decorated with gorgeous flowers that brightened up the place. The villagers sure took their time to make this place elegant.“What,” Mane turned to face Lam who was looking at him with a strange expression?“Why are you acting as though nothing happened,” Lam asked? He was staring at Mane like the boy was a rare specimen. His expression as he questioned Mane was reminiscent of a man who had just seen something unbelievable, but didn’t have the time to appreciate it. He wondered how Mane was able to continue sightseeing with such a natural
Within the residence which was at the centre of the village, the residence assigned to the Village Head, two people were having a conversation.“How is he,” a middle aged man with a few strands of gray in his hair, asked the only other person sharing the room with him?“He is fine – generally. Right now he is asleep, but he is definitely in pain” The person who replied the middle aged man was an old man with a hump. The old man was clad in several strange chains and amulets, and even his ankles weren’t spared from the binding of these ornaments. His eyes were completely white, and his hair was fully gray. There was a huge ring hanging on his nose, and his lower lip had been pierced with a small rod. In simple terms, he was a queer looking old man.The middle aged man looked perturbed by the reply the old man gave him. Unlike the old man who embodied the word ‘eccentric’, the middle aged man was quite the looker. He
“Today was great. I never knew this place was so big” Back at Dan’s residence, Mane appreciated the efforts of the twins who freely showed him around the village by conveying his thanks. His bright expression and sparkling eyes revealed that he wasn’t just being polite. He truly enjoyed himself today. Although getting to blow off some steam, by butchering Tito and his friends was part of the reason he felt so at ease, sightseeing with the twins was fun in so many ways. The village was small yet beautiful, and the marketplace was filled with strange things he had never seen or heard of before.“Yeah. The village looks small when you only stay at one place. However, once you begin to explore, you realize that it is much bigger than you could ever imagine” Lam smiled at Mane and stated.“I learnt that today,” Mane nodded his head in agreement. “Are you sure that you do not want to come inside,” Mane asked the twi
Hildegarde snickered happily as she recalled the look on Mane’s face when he first saw the skill. It wasn’t happiness he experienced first – it was helplessness.“How can the Dreamscape’s Will come up with such a cheesy name for its skill,” was what Mane thought when he saw the skill’s name? It wasn’t just the name that was cheesy, even the description was weird. It made Mane wonder what kind of being the Dreamscape’s Will was. It certainly wasn’t normal if that was how it named its skills.Although Mane couldn’t say what he thought out loud since he was being escorted by the twins at the time, Hildegarde could tell what he was thinking by the displeasure on his face. It made her happy when she saw him react so negatively to the skill’s name. It wasn’t only because she also thought that the Dreamscape’s Will had a weird naming sense; rather, it was because Mane’s reaction was norm
“Yep,” Mane could finally reply to Hildegarde’s comments now that there was no one around.“Wait a minute,” Mane suddenly exclaimed and startled Hildegarde, who almost fell off his shoulder due to his sudden action.“What,” Hildegarde sounded irritated? She flew above Mane with a look of annoyance on her face, obviously from the fact that Mane had robbed her of her favorite ‘couch’.“He said we’d go hunting tomorrow. I was just thinking that it would be a shame to miss a hunt because of that meeting” Mane looked apologetic seeing Hildegarde’s dissatisfied expression. It wasn’t his intention to shrug her off his shoulder.“I doubt that would factor into this,” Hildegarde stated while waving her tiny hands. She slowly flew onto Mane’s shoulder and settled herself on it once more.“You normally wouldn’t worry about something like that. So
Mane sat cross-legged for about an hour. Before long, the light poring outside the window ceased its action, and the room grew dim. Mane was so lost in his meditation, he didn’t notice that the sun had gone down. Luckily for him, there was someone here who wasn’t meditating.“I need to light the lamp huh,” Hildegarde sighed as she flew towards the lamp next to the window. She ignored the lighter that was on the table, and approached the lamp. She blew at the lamp softly, and it lit up brightly, as though fireflies were dancing in it. This strange way of lighting the lamp wasn’t seen by anyone. If anyone had seen this, they would have been gob smacked. It was a different case if Hildegarde performed a fire breath. But she only blew at the lamp, and it lit up. It was remarkable, but there was no one present to see it. No wait a minute. There was one person around to see it.“No matter how many times I see you do that, I cannot comprehe
“Because of me,” Hildegarde pointed her finger in her face and repeated Mane’s words? She didn’t understand what Mane was getting at.Mane sighed when he noticed her clueless expression. He decided that it was time he told her why he was so insistent that Edict was available on this planet.“Have you never wondered why you could fly,” Mane started? “Have you ever considered why you are able to hide yourself from the perception of others even without doing anything,” he continued.“You could say that the concealment is natural because of the Dreamscape’s system. But what kind of system doesn’t have a power unit” Mane started his monologue. Hildegarde was stunned into silence by his words.That’s right. Why had she never thought of how all these were possible? If it was another testing ground, it would be only natural that flying and concealment would be available to her. After al