Chapter: 118

On a quieter side of the village, a series of small wooden houses made a loose boundary between the evergreen forest and Losla. A single house in this line of houses pointed out to the forest instead of into the town.

“Hmm, I thought I would be more excited about tomorrow, but I feel nothing.” Mark folded his hands, sitting on a step outside his small house facing the forest. A cup of tea sitting next to him periodically made wisps of steam which smelt sweetly pleasant to Mark. His front yard was usually overgrown with forest weeds, though they were mostly spindly bushes at the moment since it was winter. Clearly, keeping a nice-looking yard was not a priority.

“Tomorrow, hopefully, I can finally leave this all behind..” he thought as he stared off into the forest while sipping his tea, a few unpleasant flashes of distant memories went through his mind – before he shook his head and snapped out of it, returning his gaze to the quiet forest.

Four years ago, Mark’s father died adventuring – his mother was filled with grief and hopelessness at this news. She became a shell of her former self, drinking every day until vomiting, and crying herself to sleep most nights.

Mark was just an impressionable fourteen year old kid at the time. Images of his mother getting the bad news, shaking in grief, and vomiting after drinking too much were seared into his mind – the pain had become a part of him.

Eventually, Mark began drinking too, often drinking more than he planned to; he simply couldn’t control himself when he began. The intoxication made the sadness feel good – or perhaps it only numbed it for a while. Mark wasn’t sure, but he hated himself for this.

Observing the quiet forest, Mark didn’t notice a short blonde girl walking around the side of his house. Her footsteps were almost completely silent.

It was of course Anya, who herself had things on her own mind.

Anya was wondering why Jay seemed to be cold to her. “I haven’t been rude to him… I didn’t even hit him, it’s bullshit, I did naht.” she threw her muffin down as she said this expressionlessly, walking around the small wooden fence around Mark’s house before finding him.

“Oh, Hi Mark.”

“Oh. Hey, how are you?” Mark said with a smile, though he had forgotten her name but remembered her face.

“I’m good thanks. You’re joining the military tomorrow aren’t you?”

“Yeah. Hopefully.”

“I’m sure you’ll get in, especially with your class.”

“Heh, yeah probably.” Mark looked at his hands. “I just hope they don’t try to push me harder because of it.”

Anya shrugged “Time will tell… anyway… the military escort will still have to visit numerous other villages around the countryside for recruitment – but there is a way you can skip all that.” she smiled.

“Skip it? What do you mean?”

“Sullivan said he’ll be happy to make an escort for you to take you directly to a military hub. It’ll save you weeks of senseless walking.”

Mark stopped relaxing and stood up, interested in what she was saying as he sensed that there was a condition to the terms.

“That would be great..” he looked a little confused as he half-smiled “But why?”

“Well, there’s a quest of sorts. We need your help, and it will run until tomorrow so you’ll miss the military escort.”

Mark half-smiled, his guard wasn’t down but he reasoned with her for a moment, realizing it was actually a great deal.

“Oh, awesome. Better to be slaying monsters than walking.” he sipped his tea and smiled, looking into the forest again.

Anya was glad she didn’t need to do more convincing.

Generally, guards in the association followed orders without question, however after working with Jay, she expected more people to be like him: resistant and self-contained. While she disliked these qualities in him, she unknowingly and ironically strived for them in herself.