Chapter 2 – An Encounter
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*Chirp*

Kaiji felt something perched upon his chest, gradually inching its way forward until it reached his face. Then pecked his lips.

"Wha—"

Kaiji's eyes opened with a jolt and bolted up to sit in an upright position.

*Chirp!!*

Startled, the little bird flew away.

The dazzling brilliance of the sun made him squint and cover his still drooping eyes. After a moment of adjusting his sight from the blinding light, he then began to message his temples with his fingers as he still felt a bit dizzy in his head. Then everything that occurred last night all suddenly came back to him.

"...!" Kaiji hurriedly stood up and turned his head right and left as he swiftly scanned everything in his surroundings. "Simonne!!"

A figure laid down on the grass not far away from him, and its lower body was submerged in a large pool of blood. Kaiji instantly knew, without a doubt, that he's his companion, Simonne.

But Kaiji panicked when he saw the astonishing amount of blood out of his body and immediately rushed towards him. He crouched then placed his finger upon his neck and checked his pulse, and surprisingly discovered that he still had life. Knowing that he's still alive, he couldn't help but sigh in relief. Afterwards, he began to inspect his injury. When seeing such amount of blood, Kaiji sucked in a deep cold breath. But his train of thoughts abruptly trailed off as he became confused. 

"Where's the arrow?"

Kaiji still vividly remember the time Simonne had it deeply lodged through one of his legs last night. Can it be just an hallucination?

But the next scene even more shocked him. He discovered that the wounded area, where the arrow had penetrated in, had been completely, thoroughly disappeared— like it never even been there in the first place. This caused Kaiji to be stupefied. 

"...Kaiji?"

While groaning, Simonne lousily opened his eyes and supported himself up using his arms to see Kaiji. He rubbed his eyes before he raised his brows and asked, "...What's with that look?"

---

After Kaiji and Simonne recovered from their incredulity, they became perplexed as to how Simonne's injury healed. The scene that happened last night might still be questionable, but the bloodstains on Simonne's clothes and the blood pool beneath him was undoubtedly not false. This really baffled them.

"So that means that my wound did actually healed overnight?"

"...Well, I guess that's right."

Simonne tightly knitted his brows. Compared to last night, his complexion also turned pale to its normal color— and even looked much healthier than before. "..."

"But how do you feel right now?"

"I feel... refreshed."

Kaiji smiled then nodded. "Then that's good."

Simonne also nodded back, saying, "There's no point thinking about it too much. Let's prepare to set up after a while."

Kaiji nodded at his words and stood up, grabbed and swung his knapsack behind him. 

*Woosh*

But then a rather strong gale passed through the both of them. Kaiji couldn't help but squint and held his arms in his front as he was slowly being pushed back by the wind. Simonne wasn't too good off himself either, being also pushed back by the gale.

"Hmm?"

A lone figure of a person emerged from the woods, walking in a leisurely manner.

As he gradually neared, Kaiji was finally able to see the appearance of that person— or rather, a young man. He seemed to be about a few years younger than Kaiji and was a bit shorter than himself. He wore an ordinary loose garb of cloak and had also the same black hair as him. But Kaiji felt a vague sense of uneasiness when he saw the pair of glowing, purple eyes that seemed to suck in Kaiji himself, when looking. 

He doesn't seem to have anyone accompanying him, Kaiji noted in his thought. He noticed that the boy, that might have been even younger than him, had no one else with him in sight. All alone.

Simmone also stared unblinkingly towards the boy. He couldn't shake off the feeling of foreboding when he looked straight at the strange purple pupils that seemed to pierce through his soul. 

Staring at the two people before him, the boy's eyebrows curved up. "I didn't expected to find anyone here." He shook his head and sighed, acting as though he'd been feeling sorrowful. "But since you both have seen me already... Don't worry, I'll make this all quick." With that, he waved his hand.

Then as if a hammer, weighing several pounds, struck Kaiji to the center of his chest, he flew backwards for a few dozens of meters until he crashed at a tree. He spat a mouthful of blood and held his chest tightly with his hand as his face quickly grew ashen.

Seeing Kaiji being injured just like that, Simonne felt his heart tighten. He then anxiously looked backed at the person who made such an impossible feat of tossing someone through the air at a distance, and sucked in a cold deep breath. He can't believe what he just saw in his heart.

The boy also shifted his gaze to Simonne, and the corners of his mouth rose to form a hint of a cold smile.

Simonne felt his body being drawn in by the air and flew at where the boy stood.

"W-what is this?!"

"The both of you can only blame your bad luck for seeing me in this kind of place."

The boy raised his hand and folded his index finger. 

"Ahhh!"

Simonne sensed something weird happening inside his body then felt his organs being slowly compressed by an invisible force. His heart, lungs, and everything inside was being gradually squeezed as second goes by. The excruciating pain made him scream at the top of his lungs and tormented as well his mentality. Beads of sweat streamed down his face as he gnashed his teeth. His face was much more paler than ever before.

"Hm?"

The boy stopped what he was doing and turned his gaze into the distance. "You're still alive?"

Kaiji tightly clenched his fists as he forcefully supported himself up in a feeble manner. He looked at Simonne who was suffering at the hands of the boy and eventually stood up on his feet. 

"Let him go!"

Kaiji shouted and forcibly used all of his remaining strength to walk limply forward.

Seeing that scene, the boy frowned. He decided to toss Simonne at the side and waved his arms to pull Kaiji in front of him.

Kaiji haven't had enough strength to resist as he was being sucked in by the mysterious energy and landed in front of the boy.

The boy checked the person, Kaiji before him. He frowned even more deeply and after a moment of inspection, he felt shocked.

"Y-you are?!"

The boy unconsciously took a step back and released both Kaiji and Simonne in their restrictions. Droplets of sweat began to pour down his forehead as he sank into deep thought. After a while of contemplation, he decided to give both of them a strand of purple energy before he reluctantly left in haste, disappearing through the woods. 

Kaiji and Simonne who was both suffering at the injuries they've just took could no longer bother about the boy leaving out. They tightly grit their teeth and tried to suppress the pain.

    

    

    

---     

       

     

    

      

      

Two figures stood in the middle of the room. One of them wore a thick silver armor that shielded almost every part of his body and a helmet that veiled his appearance. The large armor seemed to weigh about more or less a hundred of pounds. While the other one sat behind a desk, reading a parchment.

"Have you send your troops already?" The old man asked while shooting the man in armor a sharp stare.

"Yes." The knight responded with a snap, apparently irritated. "They must all be in the borders right now."

"..." The old man frowned but did not pursue the matter regarding the knight's attitude. "Good. Send me a notice when you found him."

"I know." The knight gritted his teeth but controlled himself back. He then turned around and reached for the door. But he stopped at the threshold. "You better fulfill your promise to me or else I'll personally tell to everyone every single 'good' deeds you've done up 'til now."

The old man behind the desk smiled in a strange way. "Don't worry."

The knight's complexion darkened then walked out the room, slamming the door. 

   

    

   

---

    

    

     

    

After a full four days of trekking through the deep woods of the Redbark Forest, Kaiji and Simonne finally got out and arrive at the forest's borders. Also, all the injuries they've sustained from the last time also miraculously vanished. Kaiji couldn't think of any other reason other than that mysterious stuff that entered his body that time, which made him feel more vigorous ever since its appearance. They then spent a day to rest afterwards.

And after the sixth day of their journey, they finally arrived at the nearest village.

"We're now passing through the borders of the Sephite Empire's Phythe Kingdom." Simonne explained while walking.

Kaiji nodded. "I see."

A vague silhouette of a wall could be seen in the far distance at the front. And as they neared, Kaiji discovered that it was a layered-brick wall of about a dozen of meters in height— rather short in comparison to the walls he had seen in the Congregation, where enormous walls that reaches for about more than forty meters can't even be counted on hand. But this is, after all, just a village. It shouldn't be compared to a town. 

Arriving at the village's outskirts, several rows of soldiers could be seen, all holding spears. One of those soldiers ran in front of Kaiji and Simonne and pointed his spear. 

"Halt!"

    

  

      

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