“Excuse m-me, sir. I n-need to p-p-pee,” I’d managed to ask while sweat poured down my face, gritting my teeth. I couldn’t have asked earlier because of how terrifying Mr. Flame seemed. Being eager to learn from him was just as much a reason though. I was holding my groin as I jumped around. I was jumping as if the ground was hot.

SIGH, “Okay, kid. Don’t take long.”

I sprinted to a nearby outdoor toilet. After I’d peed, I ran back to the training ground which was on the southern side of camp.

 The camp had four training grounds in the four cardinal directions—north, east, south and west. Each training ground was circular in shape and measured two hundred meters in radius and had no walls built around it.

Training grounds were used for combat skills and physical training exercises. Petty senior offenders could be confined to the training grounds for a day. Petty offences such as stealing from the kitchen or refusing to go on a mission attracted this kind of punishment.

The southern training ground was especially used to train juniors. It was the farthest from the north where rogues usually attacked from.

“Sir! I’m back!”

“Hey, kid. Keep it down,” Mr. Flame shushed me.

Right, it’s late.

“…”

“To begin with, you must know that the scroll isn’t the most powerful energy object.”

Really?

“…”

“The Maata orb is the ultimate energy object there is.”

The Maata orb?

“Sir, what is the Maata orb?”

“It is a ball concentrated with cosmological energy.”

“Cool.”

“Yeah, yeah. Come with me.”

“…”

We sat down on the cold, rocky ground. Mr. Flame told me to open the scroll.

“Now I need you to place your index finger on the center of the scroll. Think about where we are sitting now, the texture of the rocky ground.”

“The left one or the right one, sir?”

“It doesn’t matter! Just do as I say!”

Mr. Flame was seemingly angered, gritting his teeth and clenching his hands so tightly I could hear them crack.

“S-sir-”

“Right, right. It’s late. But I need you to act sharp, Haji.”

“I’m sorry, sir.”

“Right. Now do as I said.”

I placed my right index finger on the scroll but nothing happened. I looked at Mr. Flame intently.

“…”

“Kid, energy objects work with the Wielder’s intent. You have to keep your mind preoccupied with a specific thought while maintaining rhythmic breathing.”

Right! I wasn’t doing rhythmic breathing.

“…”

“You have to make what you think into a target, just like Tina. She doesn’t rely on her eyes when aiming, but her mind. She creates the target in her head, then aiming becomes easy.”

Wow! Incredible! My pupils dilated and my eyes sparkled in amazement.

“Right, sir. I will try one more time.”

“Sure.”

“…”

I tried one more time. Still, nothing happened, Dammit! It’s not working!

“Uh, Sir,” I did what I should have done in the first place—asking what the training was worth, “What will happen if I get this right?”

Mr. Flame placed his right hand on my left shoulder. He sighed with a somewhat long face that spelt disappointment, “Kid. Didn’t the boss tell you anything about the scroll?”

“He did, but it wasn’t about how it works. He only told me about how he found it and how he, em-got it from the cube.”

For a moment, he stayed quiet. After a few seconds, Mr. Flame sighed heavily again, closing his eyes and casting his face to the ground.

“…”

“Alright, kid. You’re just about as clueless as Tina was.”

“Uh? Miss Tina?”

“Yes.”

Really? Miss Tina was just like me?

My lower jaw could have easily fallen to the ground with how wide I had opened my mouth.

“…”

“Let me share a story with you. My story.”

I listened quietly.

“…”

—

ZACH FLAME

During my early days as a senior, I used to train so hard. The target? To be seen by the boss. I insisted many times on going on tough missions even though I had a frail body. However, I wasn’t gonna give up until I climbed the ranks.

One day, we were sent on a mission with my squad, the Diamond Reapers. The mission was to save a girl who had been abducted by the rogue harvesters. The rogues were headed to the abandoned village, so the boss sent us to retrieve her. I insisted to be on the front line. The boss let me.

When we reached the abandoned village, there was no one there. The abandoned village used to be a military base that later became desolate after its inhabitants moved into camp. We searched the huts, but couldn’t find anything. Now we had clustered together, looking up into the forest, big trees all around us. Tall ones too. We were five in total, with our swords drawn out. We were constantly scanning the forest to see if they were hiding in the trees.

“Looking for us?” A voice was heard from above.

We all looked up and saw a man with a beard as long as the hair in his head. He was smiling proudly with gaps in his teeth. From the worn-out cloak, dirty outfit and sandals, he was a rogue.

The man was pulling the tied-up girl’s hair tightly with his left hand. In his right hand he held a small knife placed on the girl’s neck.

“Hey! Just what-”

I wanted to say some bad stuff to the bastard, but commander Gustav stopped me, “Wait, Flame. I’ll handle this. Everyone, search for the others. He cannot be alone.”

—“Sir! Yes, sir!”

The commander dropped down his sword, “Alright then, come down here so we can talk like real men!”

We dispersed into the dense forest, jumping from tree to tree looking for the rogues.

He asked the rogue, “What do you want with the kid?”

“She is a prodigy, isn’t she? We have been watching her for a while now. We seek to put her wielding powers to better use.”

“Who are you?”

“I am Rod. Not what we wanted, but the boss will be pleased.”

The boss?

I swung straight into a tree and fell just where the commander was confronting the rogue.

“Uh-he,” I muttered with sweat running down my face, “Commander.”

“Flame. Didn’t you hear what I instructed you?”

“I-I..”

“Hey! Keep making noise and I will kill the brat! Although the boss wants her alive, I don’t give a damn what happens to her,” the rogue interrupted.

“Calm down Rod,” the boss tried to appease the rogue.

“Do as I instructed you, Flame. Go!”

“Alright, commander.”

As I dusted myself up and turned away from them, I heard a mumble from the girl. Possibly a hushed scream—her mouth was tied with a cloth.

She hit the rogue on his crotch with her right heel. The rogue let go of her hair and clutched his vitals with both his hands, “Damn you!”

The girl fled from his grip and was running toward the commander when the rogue pulled up his knife to slash her neck from behind.

“Wait!” The commander urged the girl, who turned back to glance at the rogue before she was pushed aside. The commander had his neck slashed instead.

“Commander Gustav!” I screamed, running to him with my arms stretched forward, Impossible. How can this happen? Commander.

My eyes welled with tears as I ran to the fallen commander, but he said, “Go! Take the girl and leave!”

“S-Sir!”

The rogue shifted his gaze to the girl, “You’ve caused me so much trouble. I’ll just kill you here and now.”

The girl still had her hands tied up. She couldn’t move properly and she needed help getting up.

I looked at the commander who had fallen and was bleeding from the neck, Commander. How can this happen to you?

I was running to take the girl back. Since the rogue had seen me as a nuisance who wanted to get in his way, he paced at the girl slowly. He wanted me to reach there quick so he could kill me easily.

I ran as fast as I could. Immediately I reached where the girl laid, I untied her and removed the cloth from her mouth. When I looked back, the rogue was before me, I’m screwed.

“Go! Run!” I told the girl, to which she listened.

When the rogue saw the girl running for her life, he decided to ignore me and wanted to start running after her. Fortunately, I got in front of him.

“Where do you think you’re going?”

“I don’t have time to play silly games with you, knucklehead. You see how your commander is, laying helplessly on the ground? You’ll be worse when I’m done with you.”

Uh! I don’t care if I have to die here as long as this mission is a success, I gritted my teeth and gripped my sword tight with both hands, “Bring it on, loser.”

“What?! Did you just call me loser?!” The bastard pounced again, smoldering with anger.

The rogue was running toward me with his small knife. Perhaps he was hoping to rip my chest open or cut off my neck. Either way, I would still die. As he caught onto me, he did what I’d earlier assumed—he aimed at my chest.

CLANG! SNAP!

I had held my sword horizontally to block the attack. However, it broke and the rogue’s little knife slid up to my nose, leaving me wounded, Uh! My sword! I’m so done-for.

SCHICK…CHANK!

“Argh!”

“Commander. You-”

“Run away, kid. I’ll deal with this rascal.”

I nodded and ran off holding my wounded nose. The other squad members were nowhere in sight.

The commander had crawled to where he had dropped his sword and threw it at the rogue’s torso. The sword cut through cleanly. It was astounding to see what he did in the state he was in.

As I ran to camp. I caught up with the girl, who was barely making her way to camp. So, I grabbed her and put her on my back. In no time we had reached the northern gate.

The gate was opened and we got into camp. After days went by without seeing my squad members return, a rescue team was sent into the abandoned village. Unfortunately, the commander and everyone else had died. Their bodies were recovered from the forest. The rogue that killed the commander was nowhere to be found.

A camp funeral was held and the Archharvester had come to bid farewell to our fallen comrades. Something that he’d said in his tribute particularly caught my attention, “The deaths of our friends show that we cannot be heroes for ourselves and for others. We have to choose. Nonetheless, sacrifice is all that counts. Power is useless without sacrifice.”

 What does he mean? We have to choose who dies and who doesn’t?

The girl we had saved was Tina Heinrich. The rogues sought her Wielder abilities—which I didn’t quite understand at the time. After I was debriefed, all the information was written down and later given to boss Zakai.

After some months, the boss sent for me, and I was quickly made captain. Wow! Captain. I’m captain Flame now. I will remember your sacrifice, commander Gustav. Thank you.

After some years had passed, when you were still a child, boss Zakai entrusted me with the presumed secrets of our nation.

“Flame.”

“Sir.”

“Very few know about the power of a Wielder. Let alone, some Wielders like Tina don’t quite understand their powers. ”

He is right. Tina is completely clueless about her power. But I still don’t know what the boss is trying to say.

“I don’t quite follow, boss.”

“To think that a rogue knows who a Wilder is. It makes me wonder.”

“What do you mean exactly, boss?”

“I’m saying that the boss of the rogue that killed Gustav has to be someone who knows this nation well.”

“Right.”

As I sat opposite to him in his office the boss leaned forward and looked me in the eyes intently, “You must be ready to fight anyone, Flame.”

“Uh?”

“You heard me right. Didn’t you see?”

“See what, boss?”

“Stealing back the scroll was so easy. Why did Zircon limit the number of harvesters guarding the cube?”

Uh? It all makes sense now.

“…”

“Again, I warn you. Be prepared to fight.”

—

“I hope you were listening, kid.”

“…”

So that’s what it is.

I just nodded.

“Do you mean the Archharvester is working with the rogues?”

“Exactly, Haji. As far as we know, yes.”

Sir Gale Zircon, uh? Just a tyrant who wants it all for himself.

“Don’t get so worked up, kid. You have to focus on the scroll.”

“Uh?”

“The scroll. You have to make it glow with your index finger. You’re training, remember?”

“Oh, right.”

“Now, think about what you want it to do, and it will do more than just glow.”

“…”

What do you want with the Wielders, you old bag of bones? Uh. Sir my foot. You’re only Zircon to me now, I placed my right index finger on the center of the scroll and…

THUD!

The ground shook, Oh my!

“What did you think about, kid?”