"That dream, again" Nero stood up and sighed.
Ever since that incident happened, he would have the same dream every single day. His eyes had dark circles beneath them showing the fatigue that has been piling up.
"No. I must not lose faith. There was no sign of her body anywhere around there. She must have escaped." He mumbled to himself. Gripping his head tight. The more he tried to think back to that memory the more his expectations waned.
Few months have passed since that incident happened. And no longer was he anywhere near his old home. The people from the nearby village drove him out of there. It was a miracle that he escaped there without any bloodshed.
"Huff. I can't stay idle. The places mom could have gone. I need to search all of them." Nero clapped his cheeks in resolution and stood up.
During this period he searched everywhere nearby. Although their family kept quite a low profile in minstrel, it didn't mean they didn't have any connections. From what his mother had told him and what he could find from the books she left behind he began the search.
At first, tried contacting the closest people Lin had here. Unfortunately, she had not reached any of them. After that, the nearby towns and villages were next. Which once again didn't yield any results.
So after exhausting all possible clues in Minstrel Nero decided to return to his mother's homeland, Fiore.
Unlike Minstrel where mages had quite a bad name, Fiore was a land where they were revered. Many of the world-famous Guilds and mages originated from there.
There was less than a million chance that she went there. But there was no other way the situation would only get worse if we stayed around.
Thus he started the journey to reach Fiore. Which leads to him, in a forest clearing between Ashwell village to the country of Caelum.
"It would have been much better if I could just go Athalan where a single ship ride would get me to Hargeon in Fiore." But he is quite infamous there right now. Dubbed the 'Boy of Calamity'. Therefore going there would just result in him getting caught.
"Tch. Ungrateful bastards. Even though I saved their damned lives." He clicked his tongue, getting ready to depart once again.
Before leaving Nero managed to scrape up whatever he could from the house's remains. Most things were destroyed or buried underground. A few books, emergency food, money, and a few keepsakes.
Although he could have excavated a lot more if he spent some more time digging around the threat of crazy villagers didn't allow it.
And since he couldn't bring everything with him the rest were hidden away underground using earth magic.
"This much money should be okay for a while. If I had found mom's chest I'd have more. But still, way better than completely broke."
The sun's rays penetrated through the dense leaves indicating the crack of dawn.
"Sun's finally up. Animals and beasts should have retreated by now. Better get going." Muttering to himself. Nero shouldered his backpack and continued towards Caelum.
The forest around was eerily calm. Maybe because it's the start of the morning, not even most of the birds were awake.
Even though it seemed that way, Nero has been constantly avoiding any places with possible interference till now.
Using a technique called seismic sense his mother taught him, he was constantly monitoring the presences around him. It worked by sensing the vibrations around him through his feet and making a mental image of it.
Lin used this to navigate around ever since she lost her sight. But unlike her where one can concentrate solely on this ability, Nero used it in conjunction with his normal sight. So it was not as efficient as the original.
But still, he was able to locate most of the noticeable fluctuations, and whenever a big reaction was to be found he would take a detour.
"Somethings coming!" Stopping in his tracks Nero closed his eyes to concentrate on whatever was approaching him currently.
"Something big..a bear maybe. Or some kind of big monster in the worst-case scenario." Without wasting any time, he raised the ground beneath his legs into a pillar to give himself a boost and landed on a tree branch high enough to be safe.
"Groaurr" A gigantic bear came running to the spot where he was before.
"A bear as expected. Should I wait or take it out." He pondered, inspecting the bear to decide the next move.
The creature started sniffing around as it saw that no one was around. After a while, it stopped and looked upwards where the boy was hiding.
"Okay...it found me. What'll it do.? Bears can't climb trees right..?" Just as he finished the sentence the bear approached the tree and started climbing it.
"dammit, I wanted to avoid any fights if possible." He cursed at the bear who was climbing the tree.
Despite its humongous body, the bear climbed the tree quite fast. But before it could reach out to the prey, Nero jumped down landing on the ground with a bang. Seeing the boy flee, it followed the part and jumped from the tree.
"Be thankful that I don't want to waste my time with you." The boy said as an earthen wall was erected between them.
"Let's not waste any more time." Nero thought inwardly as he took off again not giving the bear a chance to catch up.
He ran through the thick foliage without a second thought. Braches and vines poking out scraped his skin. But he clenched his tech through all of it without stopping. Only after reaching a considerable distance did he stop.
"Huff..pff...Looks like it chose to give up on me. That's good." He checked the surroundings for any presence just to make sure while taking a sip of water. Sitting down he opened the bag and took out some jerkies to eat.
"I couldn't bring myself to a fight again." Nero clenched the bottle in his fist.
"What if it was a monster which could harm other people. Just like that day. Would I be able to fight and kill it?" The sun rays fell onto his face as he looked up.
On a nearby tree branch a spider was about to eat the prey it caught in its web. Such was the rue of the jungle. Ony the strong survive. Weak have no voice there but to be the food for the strong.
He was nothing but a child who left his home a few months ago. Before this Nero hadn't even gone anywhere this far from his home. Let alone by himself.
But he knew in his heart that if he wanted to survive at least he reached his goal, confrontations such as this would be commonplace.
After walking for 3 hours straight, Nero finally reached the outskirts of the forest. What welcomed him was the view of the vast sea.
"Wow. So this is the sea. It's really big, just like in mom's stories." He exclaimed looking at the sight before him.
The sea was like a rippling blanket that moved along with the gentle breeze that accompanied. It was quite a contrast from the tense and dangerous forest. Looking far, there was nothing but the deep blue sea.
But if you look carefully enough the land across would be visible as a dot in the horizon. The end of the forest led to a cliff with the sea directly below. Waves crashing on to it sprayed water droplets upwards.
Now that he found his way out a means of transport had to be secured too.
The wind was quite strong as he made his way along the border of the forest looking for a way to cross the sea.
After walking some distance Nero finally caught a glimpse of what he needed. There was a small village where multiple boats were parked on the shore. It was a small fisherman's settlement.
"Finally, it looks like a place where fishermen live." He thought crouching up in the bushes. He could see some men walking on the sand with what looked like fishnets and hooks in their hands. Looks like they were about to head into the sea to catch fish.
"Should I just steal one of their boats.? They have so many already...But stealing is bad...also it could gather more attention which I don't want right now." As the boy was immersed in his thoughts, a voice came from behind.
"Hey. what are you doing there.?"
