“Yawn~”

 

Jasmine yawned as she rubbed her half opened eyes. It took a few minutes before she completely woke up from her half sleep state.

 

The first thing she saw was an old man with hunched back sitting in a corner. The old man wore a troubled face. He looked at her with sad eyes, one could see a moist forming in the edges of his eyes.

 

“Hmmm? Grandpa chief? What are you doing here?”

 

He was the village chief, Ulbert.

 

“Ohhhh! I know, you are going to give me some candies!” said Jasmine, however she quickly covered her mouth, then lowered her voice, “Oh no big sis will be mad at me if she heard me taking candies in the morning.”

 

Hearing this, the village chief couldn’t stop himself from crying.

 

“Eh? Why are you crying grandpa chief?”

 

Ulbert abruptly wiped his tears.

 

“N-nothing, more importantly you can read right?”

 

“Hehehe, of course, big sis taught me how to read and right, she would nag at me if I got the words and spellings wrong though.”

 

“I-I see. Then here. Read it carefully.”

 

Ulbert carefully hand-over the letter written by Rianne to Jasmine.

 

“Ehhh, are you testing me for the candies? Tsk, tsk, tsk. Don’t underestimate me hehehe.”

 

Jasmine grabbed the letter and opened it. However, as soon as she read the letter, her eyes widened, her grip loosened and the letter dropped slowly. She felt her surroundings spined. 

 

“Th-this is a joke right?” Droplets of tears started to fall down as she muttered. 

 

“R-right, grandpa chief?”

 

She looked at Ulbert, however Ulbert remained silente as tears started to flow in his eyes again.

“N-no, no, no, no! B-big sister and Grandpa will not leave me. W-we are family after all. Yes, that’s right.”

 

“I-I’m sorry.” 

 

These two words were the only sounds he could make as a response towards Jasmine.

 

“Big sister, Grandpa.” 

 

Jasmine abruptly jumped off the bed as she ran towards the exit of her room. Her tears and snot mixed together as she called out her big sister and grandfather with the loudest voice as she could.

 

“Jasmine!”

 

Because of old age, Ulbert’s reaction was late so he wasn’t able to stop her from running away.

***

 

The people outside were shocked by the sudden cry of Jasmine and looked at ‘their’ house’s direction.

 

“What happened?”

 

“Did something bad happen?”

 

Some villagers slowly approach the house to check if something happened, however their tracks stopped when Jasmine suddenly dashed out from their house.

 

The villagers looked at each other with a confused look.

 

A few seconds later, Ulbert also exited the house. The villagers looked at him with questioning gazes.

 

“**huff** **huff** I-I will explain later, let’s catch up with Jasmine first, the direction she was running is the forest. With her current state of mind, it wouldn’t be impossible for her to go deeper in the forest.”

 

The villagers quickly abandoned the things they were doing, and quickly chased Jasmine.

Jasmine is abnormally a fast runner, fast enough that even a healthy youngster like Rianne was unable to keep up. That’s why she immediately managed to create a great distance. Not to mention their house near the village gate.

 

Just a few minutes she managed to reach the edge of the forest and she ran without stopping. 

 

“Big Sister! Where are you huhuhu. Why did you leave me alone? I wouldn’t be stubborn, please come back. I will be obedient from now on, so - so please don’t abandon me. I-I don’t want to be alone again!”

 

Her crying voice echoed throughout the surroundings. Her current state of mind was clouded by anxiety and shock, that’s why she wasn’t able to determine her direction properly and ran towards the forest instead of the direction towards the local city.

 

She ran as she cried, even if her screams hurt her throat, she didn’t stop.

 

Thud!

 

Jasmine tripped and her head and face hit the soil. But, she didn’t stop. She slowly stood up, and ran while limping, her snot had a mix of blood and dirt. She was obviously injured in her nose after hitting the hrad soil of the forest.

However, she suddenly felt her surroundings blurred and stripped again. This time, she wasn’t able to stand up again even if she tried. Eventually, her surrounding was completely swallowed by the darkness.

 

Minutes later…

 

“Fuhihihi, Fuhihihi.”

 

A wolf-like creature that was making a weird laughing sound suddenly appeared and slowly approached Jasmine.

Laughing Wolf, a type of low level monster. Laughing Wolf were known for their peculiar laughing sounds. Although it is a low level monster, it was treated as a terrifying monster, especially by low level combatants and by the common people. Not because of its battle prowess but because it loves to torment and torture its prey while making a laughing sound. 

 

Suddenly, as the laughing wolf neared Jasmine, the dirt, leaves and dust started to make a strange transformation, no, it’s the wind. The wind suddenly blew in a strange direction bringing the dirt and leaves. It is as if it is forming a cage or some sort of barrier trying to protect Jasmine. 

 

The laughing wolf ignored the changes and continued to approach Jasmine. However…

“Fuhihihi!” It screamed.

 

The wind aggressively attacked the laughing wolf. The wind became like blades, blades that were sharp enough to shred the wolf into pieces.

“Ohhh.” an amused voice suddenly resounded.

 

A young man with a white-silver hair and golden eyes appeared and walked towards Jasmine. He is Ark.

 

The wind became aggressive again as if giving a warning.

“Calm down spirits, I am not a bad guy.”

 

However, the wind seems not convinced.

 

Ark only chuckled and continued to approach Jasmine.

 

The moment he entered the strike zone of the wind, it attacked him without mercy. That was as sharp as the blade was unable to deal damage to him. For Ark, it was just like a refreshing air blowing on his face.

 

With one thought from Ark, the wind dispersed.