“Humans are scum

They are truly, thoroughly, unmistakably evil”

 

***

 

It was another stupidly hot day and I was, as usual doing nothing and laying under the shed of the house that I have gotten familiar with over the last couple of months.

My neighbor Mr. Dog-Who-Never-Barks had left this place and shifted with his wife to her territory. I kinda feel sad and lonely that my only friend left me and went away with some bitch (female dog *cough*) but I guess that’s what life is, no one stays with you forever, life is just a game of arrivals and departures.

But still… the two of us were like brothers! Dammit! Now I’m really mad!

Ugh…why the hell am I calling some dog my brother!? I guess being lonely is finally getting to my head

 

Well, setting the heavy things aside, I wonder what should I do now? Should I go and hunt the monsters to pass time or should I just keep on sleeping here? 

It was just morning,

But when I looked at the sun, it only made me scratch my head in frustration! The sun's intensity had only increased over the last couple of hours and I doubt it would get any cooler anytime soon.

This is why I hate summers!!!

Just looking at the sun made me sweat like a pig!

Hmm… wait a minute... does a pig actually sweat? Or do people only use the phrase ‘Sweating like a pig’ as a metaphor with no scientific reasoning behind it?

I wasted my time thinking over this ridiculous topic and eventually fell asleep. I had a dream in which I was sweating like a pig myself. Hah! What a ridiculous dream!!! (author’s comment- he was actually sweating like a pig)

 

***

 

I finally woke up after an hour (1 hour) of sleep, the temperature had cooled down a lot so I decided to take a walk since I didn’t have anything else to do either. Eating, sleeping, and wasting my time roaming here and there, these things had become a part of my daily life so if I don’t properly waste my time, then I start getting anxious and frustrated. I know I am pathetic but that’s the truth.

I got up from the ground, patted the dust off my clothes, fixed the pair of swords at my waist and then I left the place

 

***

 

The streets were busy as usual

Despite the increasing price rates and the depressing economy, the number of customers at the stalls seem to have not decreased at all, I wonder why people waste so much money when it comes to buying clothes.

I mean, it’s not like I hate wearing good clothes or that I am fine with wearing anything I am given to wear. And if I were to be completely honest, I would rather not wear something shabby or undignified,

But if I were to make a priority list for myself, then in most of the cases I would put food higher on the list than the clothes I will be wearing, but I guess everyone’s different.

 

I didn’t pay any mind to these people and kept on walking, on my way I saw a bunch of women talking amongst themselves, one of them was complaining about her mother-in-law, one of them was complaining about her husband, and one of them was complaining about her neighbor having an affair with someone.

I don’t know what I should say about this… I guess I should just keep quiet and hope that their husbands, mother-in-laws or maybe their neighbors hear their conversation

I ignored the women and kept walking ahead,

 

I saw different people, some gossiping, some working, it was a surreal sight, for me at least. Every one of these people had a kind of energy in them that made me feel envious of them. They had clear eyes as if they knew where they wanted to go, like they had some place they belonged to.

Shaking my head I made my way to the local adventurer’s guild of this small city.

 

I reached the place, it was a small building with just three people, one of them was the guard and the other two were the receptionist and the caretaker respectively.

The moment I entered through the door I came to witness a very not-so-unusual and at the same time a not very usual sight, I saw the caretaker happily flirting with the receptionist and ignoring his job while the guard kept on looking at the two of them with a complexly terrifying expression on his face, hmm… looks like it’s the case of a love triangle,

A ‘painful’ memory popped in my head all of a sudden.

...

Ah shit! This made me remember my first crush!!

 

“*Thwack*”

I punched myself, literally.

This helped me kick out all the bad thoughts that had surfaced in my head

Without further wasting my time I approached the receptionist, seeing me come their way the caretaker and the receptionist stopped talking,

 

The receptionist looked at me and flashed a smile,

“Good morning, Sir Alex, it’s been a while, hasn’t it?”

The woman asked me with a pleasant smile on her face. 

“It’s been a while, Miss Leny, how have you been?”

I greeted the receptionist

“I am fine, to be honest, I am really bored, I don’t have much to do these days. You know, because of ‘that’ almost all the adventurers have left this place and it doesn’t look like anyone would come here anytime soon”

Hm? The adventurers have left? And what does she mean by ‘that’?

“Have they? Did a new dungeon pop up or something? Or is it related to the hype in monster activities?” I asked her trying to enquire more about the situation

“Neither of the two, it is related to an auction in the city of Argus. Many big people will be participating in it”

An auction? Kinda sounds fishy in my opinion

“When will it be held?”

I asked the lady to which she replied almost instantly

“Tonight at the Freedom Auditorium”

Tonight, hah? 

“How can I get the auction pass?” I asked her

Looking at me with genuine surprise, Leny started laughing loudly as if she had gone mad or something and glanced at me expectantly as if I was supposed to laugh alongside her too, well, I don’t really blame her, I mean I did spend my entire time sleeping on the streets in this city, it’s obvious that she would consider me to be dirt poor.

But still, I can’t let her make fun of me anymore, I released my mana to its full extent, the air got heavy and I am pretty sure that by now the woman in front of me must be finding it taxing to even breathe. I looked at her again, this time she stopped laughing. Well, she was actually shivering to be precise.

“Enjoying ourselves, are we?”

I smiled at her and said in an almost threatening voice. Then I put my hand on my sword’s hilt and made an action as if I was about to take it out and chop her into pieces

I looked around and my gaze fell on the caretaker and the guard

Throughout the entire time the two of them stood completely frozen, they weren’t even able to move an inch because of my aura pressing down on them

I looked at Leny

And she looked back at me and gulped,

“I-I am s-sorry s-sir, p-please f-forgive my insolence”

She said in a shaky voice, fear apparent in her eyes. I took back my mana and Leny returned back to her normal state.

Now she was looking at me with a new found respect in her eyes, mind you, she was the same woman who was making fun of me just a few moments ago

I guess violence does triumph over any sense of reason, doesn’t it?

“Now then Ms. Leny, let’s talk about the auction pass, considering our relation I hope that you won’t go tough on me” I smiled at her and said from the bottom of my heart

Leny wiped all the sweat off her face and flashed me an amiable smile as if nothing had happened at all.

The two of us started discussing the price after that

 

Half an hour later,

I emerged out of the guild with a golden pass in my hands, yep, as you might have guessed, it was the auction pass, it cost me a lot of fortune to get this nasty little piece of parchment for myself. Despite how cute that woman looked, that sly fox was surely one hell of a mess to deal with.

Despite being frightened at the very beginning it didn’t take her much time to get normal again and not only that she even tried to scam me somehow, but still in the end I was able to get the pass for a cheap price or well that’s what I would like to believe anyway. Yep, I got it for a cheap price, she wasn’t able to cheat me at all. (author’s comment- he did get scammed by her and he’s aware of it as well but… he is trying to pretend that he didn’t get scammed, poor dude)

To be honest, I don’t know why I even bothered to buy this pass in the first place, I guess I was probably just bored because my friend (the dog) had left me, I should probably sell this pass to someone else,

 

But still, leaving this place doesn’t seem all that bad to me either,

I don’t really have anything to do in this city and to be honest I am really starting to get bored of this place as well, going to the city of Argus might help me drive away my boredom. I hope I get to see something interesting there

With this thought in mind, I decided to set off from the city which I had gotten so familiar with over the last couple of months.

 

I went back to meet my former neighbor and brother, Mr. Dog, and his spouse, and said my farewells to them, after that I arrived at the city gates.

The guards welcomed me there by asking me for the staying fees but when I told them that I was going to leave the city they told me not to pay it and offered me a cigarette.

Although I am under 18 and thus prohibited to smoke, I doubt that anyone would care even if I really do smoke here. Hell, I am sure no one would even give a damn if I were to die from smoking, I guess they might make an example out of me or something and tell their shitty kids that they would end up like me if they smoke, pffthahaha…

 

Just like old buddies smoking together, I and the city guards smoked cigarettes for a bit, talked about life for a few more minutes, shared our sorrows with each other, and finally said our farewells

 

***

 

As if someone had cut down a chain binding me, I felt varieties of emotions in my head and heart both at the same time. On one hand, I was feeling happy because I was finally going on an adventure, and on the other, I was feeling sad because I had left the city I had gotten so familiar with.

Not thinking anymore about the useless stuff, I kept on walking and then I finally reached the mega city of Argus in two hours.

Argus is one of the major cities on the continent of 'Eastern Establishment'.

 

There was a long line in front of the city gates and the heavily armed guards were strictly inspecting each and every person standing in the line. My turn for inspection came in about 15 minutes, the guard asked me for my identity card which was my Adventurer Card issued to me by the Adventurers’ Guild, I handed it over to him and he inspected it for around 2 minutes before he finally gave it back to me and allowed me to enter the place

 

As soon as I entered through the gates I witnessed the might of a big city, not for the first time though.

Countless stalls lay before me with countless people standing before those stalls buying things like vegetables, fruits, meat, weapons, and potions.

I saw a bunch of kids forcing their mother to buy them ice cream, a man buying a great sword from a weapon shop, and a couple of women buying meat from a butcher.

Just like flies buzzing near a pile of trash.

There was so much noise in the background that I wasn’t even able to hear anything.

Plus the shitty sun floating high in the air kept on with its attempts to kill me by grilling me alive

It was like a scene straight out of the hell

One more minute here and I am sure I will die from heatstroke

So I decided to move on from this place

 

The auction site was located in the middle of the city in the Freedom Auditorium and the auction will be held tonight at 8 p.m., I guess I should look around the city, a bit.

With this thought in mind, I started roaming around the city,

I ate fast food at various stalls and then finished my eating campaign with an extra-large chocolate-vanilla-butterscotch-strawberry four-tier ice cream. My ice cream looked so delicious that everyone around me started looking at me with bewildered eyes, some of them even put away their food, I guess my taste in food must have made them realize how inferior they were to me.

 

After that, I started feeling sleepy, and thus, I decided to take an afternoon nap under the shed of a nearby house.

I walked over to that place, tried my best to sweep away all the dust from there, which didn’t work at all, finally giving up, I lay on the ground, closed my eyes and then fell asleep.

 

I was watching a dream, a horrible dream if I do say so myself, and for some reason, I felt as if I wasn’t dreaming but was actually experiencing everything in real life.

In the dream, I felt as if someone was sprinkling water over my face,

Huh? Why do I feel as if someone is sprinkling water over my face?

Could it be…

As soon as the thought passed my head I hurriedly stood awake,

And just as I opened my eyes,

…

…

Contrary to my expectations, I didn’t see a dog pissing on me,

It was actually a girl probably 6-7 years old. She was sprinkling water all over my face.

“What do you want, girl?”

The girl looked at me and blinked,

“Mister, are you dead?”

She asked me in a very innocent voice but I didn’t have any time to waste over her, I needed to finish my afternoon nap otherwise I might just die from withdrawal symptoms

“Yes I am, now go away you are ruining a dead person’s sleep”

I shooed away the girl and closed my eyes, but to my surprise, the girl didn’t even move a single inch, she just kept on looking at me with an innocent expression on her face.

“What? Do you want to die? Don’t you know, if you stay alongside a dead person you will die?”

I tried to threaten the girl with my bullshit logic, to be honest, I was feeling very irritated, 

But, contrary to my expectations, she smiled at me when I said that, what a creepy kid.

“What do you want?”

I asked the girl, honestly I was getting fed up with her

“Mister I want to die”

The girl said this one sentence,

It was only then that I actually paid attention to the girl's appearance, she was wearing rags for clothes and her face was covered in dust and dirt, is she a slave...?

“What’s your name?”

I asked the girl

“Cerise, my name is Cerise”

The girl answered in her sweet voice 

“Hmm… that’s a great name, so Cerise, you said you want to die, right?” 

“Yes”

She didn’t even hesitate to say yes, does she even know what dying means

“I see”

After saying that I pulled the girl over in a hug, she gave a small yelp but didn’t resist. After that, I settled her beside me on the ground,

“Mister, are you trying to sympa-pa-pathie with me?”

She asked me, looking troubled. How the hell can a girl her age make expressions like that?

“It’s ‘sympathize’! And no, I am not trying to sympathize with you”

She looked at me with confusion in her eyes, as if she wasn’t able to comprehend my motives and asked, 

“Then?”

I answered

“You want to die, right? I am just trying to help you. Remember, I am a dead man? So if you sleep alongside me then you will die alright”

The girl beamed at me when I said that and fell asleep or that’s what I thought when she suddenly asked me,

“Mister, I will die, right?”

… 

“Yep, trust me” 

After that, the light flickered in front of my eyes, and I fell asleep.