(S1) CHAPTER 2: Price Stab

I ran while pushing the unloaded cart. My other hand carries today's salary and I'm excited to present it to my uncle! I made a jubilant entrance into the garden. "Uncle Cor~! I got referrals today and an incredible increase in salary than yesterday! What would be our celebration?"

He's wearing an apron while removing the resin of the pear squash. And he looked at me, his eyes widened. "Why are you soaked!? And the smell! What happened to you!?" he screeched.

"The scoffers poured this on me. They do it often."

He strips my upper cloth and dries me with a towel. "You shouldn't be accustomed to this humiliation. At least try to defend yourself. Don't let them daunt you every day!"

I'm giggling from the way he talks. "I will next time if that will smoothen your wrinkles."

"How could you be so happy with your situation? I knew there's something wrong with the way that you were created," he murmured. He’s my uncle, Cormelio.

"I'm just happy because you care."

"Hmph. Give me that." He snatched the wallet and rummaged the coins.

"It's heavier, right? They love the freshness of your veggies. My experiment sprouted the vegetables very well!"

"What experiment?"

"I sprinkled the vegetables and even the flowers with the enzyme. Plants like it better than pale water."

"And where did you learn that?"

"I read your discoveries in your journal."

"Oh." He nodded twice. Then suddenly goggled his eyes on me. "What!? You read my journal!?" He took the knife and I ran away. "You little ‘evil! Who permitted you to meddle with my privacy!?"

I laughed while being chased with a knife. "We've been together for 13 years! What's wrong if I'd read about your first love?"

He screams like a girl. "Aaah! Get back here! I will make you regret this!"

☪ ✧ ✧

After the lunch was repleted with chatter, the training started beneath the shades of the trees still within our domain. It took me a full five hours to memorize the basics of training and use it against the scoffers whenever necessary. And by the end, heavy weariness ruled my body. It's tiresome. But exciting!

I lie down on the ground with my hands stretched in front of the sunset sky. Soothing my worn face. Cormelio lay beside me and teaches, "Use your diaphragm, not your lungs." He even demonstrated the proper breathing I should do. Now, we're both having the same view. Basking with the lukewarm temperature of the sky.

I ask, "I didn't know you very well. Does your undying talent have something to do with your past? Come on! Fill my curiosity!" I'm poking his cheek to coax him. He slaps my hand.

"You're such a childish adult!" He folds his arms. "Our topics have grown, unlike the bedtime stories we always talk about when you were a lad. And I guess it's time for a more mature story."

"We can still talk about the werewolf tales."

"You're a grown-ass man, so act accordingly." I chuckle when he's annoyed again. "I was a knight in the city of Plandreas from the far west. And then I decided to retire and live a life here as a gardener and farmer."

"Whoa... That's the shortest story I ever heard from you. But why did you retire?"

"I'm getting old. And I want to try other things such as these."

"In a faraway land? Did you want to try a new place, too?"

"... That place is now a werewolves regime. I never wanted to serve supernatural beings."

"Hmmm."

"Most importantly, it is for your safety. Unfortunately, the metropolis is under their governance now."

“Are they dangerous to me?”

“Naturally, they are wild shifting beasts so yes.”

“Shifting…? Do their eyes reflect white?”

“No, idiot.”

He's serious about his warning. So, werewolves aren't just kids' tales. In withal, it's close to my heart—maybe because I've been hearing stories about them since lad. His story doesn't have a smear of mendacity, his talent proves it. And his chosen path didn't attenuate my admiration for him! He stood up and shook off the dust of his pants. I mimicked him.

"I've never seen the metropolis before. Is it safe to live there?"

"If you bestow your loyalty to the officials." He shakes his hand in the air. "Enough with the past. Get on your feet, we're going to a shop."

I walk alongside him with gladness after knowing a piece of his life. It's pleasing indeed to have a sincere conversation with him instead of receiving admonishments. Where he purposely brought me is at the blacksmith shop.

I keep in mind and tongue the deference when we came inside. The shop isn't spacious but does satisfy the treads. Especially that there's a tiger rug. Albeit the weapons are crowded, everything is sorted according to its sect, shape, and color. Swords on the walls entertain my eyes when I land sight of it. The contrivance of the detailed design on the hilts is extraordinary.

On the counter, we saw a robust tall man. Seems like he fought a tough fight in the past.

"Cormelio! Welcome back to my shop!" he greeted. "Do you need another blade for your ax?"

And Cormelio responded to the warm welcome with doubtless grouchiness. "What do you think of me? Unable to hone my own blade and beat the stubborn soil?"

"What a geezer attitude you got there! How can I serve you?"

"Show us your merchandise daggers. I'll buy two for me and my nephew."

When I heard it, I stood beside him immediately. The blacksmith laid all the sets of daggers on the counter and I was transfixed. "Have a choice, young man!"

Cormelio murmurs, "Not the dagger but the price will stab you."

"It doesn't matter what you lose as long as you're content with what you'll gain in exchange," I said. And that made the blacksmith laugh.

"Your nephew has good precepts!"

"Not really." I'm a vendor as well. I know what will convince and console a stingy customer. I slid my fingers on the hilts of these daggers. Each has different designs such as rose, gem, hawk, and sun. But the most outstanding innovation for me is the dagger with a silver new moon on the hilt. I picked it without faltering.

"Is that your chosen one?" the blacksmith asked, always with a cheerful tone. "It has the simplest design among these. You're a simple person."

"What I'm sure is I like this one." I buoyantly presented the dagger to Cormelio only to find out that he was already staring at me. "What do you think?" After my first question pops up the next. "Also, where and when will we use these daggers? I thought your lectures were all about defense? Will you teach me offense now?" I grin like a pup but flinch right away after remembering the place! I'm losing control whenever I get excited.

He gave me the excess of my income today. "Use it to reward yourself," he said. My eyes twinkled. Nothing is more fulfilling than using my effort to reward myself! I was about to give him a hug but he obviously dodged my attempt by stepping sideward.

"I guarantee the durability of that dagger," the blacksmith whispered. Of course, that's what a vendor would say.

"Hey, what kind of substance did you use here?" Cormelio asked his friend. The blacksmith gave his attention to Cormelio this time. And while I'm taking my time alone, I stare at the new moon ornament of the dagger. Something is mesmerizing me. Something intimate. Something dear. It makes me want to see the night sky tonight. And suddenly, I remember that night when a strange woman kissed me.

My meditation was disrupted when I heard a commotion outside. It sorrows me to the soul.

There's the group of men again mocking and laughing at a slave. The victim is just a girl with shackles on her neck and wrists. She's gaunt and her plaintive face is looking down on the ground, trembling. And these obtuse guys deliberately humiliate the poor girl in front of the public. It seems like the sight of myself being humiliated by the scoffers. People with dark skin like me are either suffering from servitude or be discriminated as slaves.

I took my pace straight outside. I'm on the cusp of stepping towards them but an arm hindered my motion. It's from Cormelio. "Don't jump into the fray," he warned.

"But—! That girl... Telling me to stay still in front of that mortification disquiets me," I asserted.

"Hessuel, don't get yourself involved with this kind of friction. This often happens to slaves. And if you show an act of sympathy towards them with this kind of scenario, those guys will reciprocate."

"Look, those guys are the ones who humiliate me every morning of my selling."

"Oh. Them?" He narrows his eyes at those men, scanning their faces one by one. He was about to make furious steps towards them but I hindered my arm.

I warn, "No. Don't get yourself involved with this kind of—"

"I will teach those weaklings a memorable lesson!"

"I'm sure they'll retaliate by any means. They're not teachable."

He got out of my clenches. "Watch me," he groaned.