[366 PD]: Shoku

  “Sir, who is this child?” asked the holy knight as she saw Shoku approach.

  “It’s an interesting kid I found, I want to present him to the old hag living in the mountains.” replied the paladin.

  “Sir, you cannot just grab a kid and decide to leave your duties. We still need you to protect the ruins and keep the mad king from escaping them.”

  The paladin shrugged and grabbed shoku’s shoulder. The boy didn’t really know what to do in this situation. In his head, he had believed that Sir Zolia had talked about this with his companions and came to an agreement with them. He was obviously too optimistic.

  “This ancient pile of rags never moves, and my horse is fast. It should only take around three days for us to reach Redshore.”

  The female knight clenched her fists. “Mother Sallith gave us a clear mission, going against her words would be seen as extremely disrespectful especially after everything she has done for us.”

  The paladin wasn’t paying much attention to the woman; he hopped on the back of his chestnut horse and helped Shoku up. Even sitting on it, the boy could feel the animal’s power. It was both frightening and exciting. Sir Zolia grabbed the reins and looked back at the holy knight.

  “I’ll let you handle the report for this mission.”

  Before the woman could protest the horse neighed and galloped away, going west from the town center. Shoku held onto the paladin tightly with his eyes closed. He felt the wind zooming past him as he was going faster than ever before.

  The horse started slowing down once they reached the steep hills surrounding Bloux. Shoku finally dared to open his eyes to look back at the town. He had only spent one-fifth of his life there, yet his strongest memories were all in this place. He had experienced his first true friendships, hardships, and even love. Now all of these were slowly disappearing, swallowed by the horizon.

  “You forgot something?”

  “No, leaving this place just feels weird.”

  “You never ventured out of your town?”

  “Not exactly, I was born in a place further north before coming to Bloux. My first real journey was getting here.”

  “North huh? There’s no church of light in this direction.”

  “Yeah, it was a town lit only by fire and the gaze of the moon.”

  “How interesting, I spent so much time in the big towns that I had forgotten that the Pale gazer existed.”

  The boy’s eyes widened. “You know about the Pale gazer? I thought that people of the Middle didn’t know anything about her.”

  “Just because I am a paladin doesn’t mean that I was born in a rich family of the Middle. I’m from a small town of Utopia called Roichar.

  “Wow...”

  “Yep, and that’s why I mostly operate in this part of the realm.” He looked back at shoku with an amused glint in his one visible eye. “Also, there are way too many demon alerts in the Middle.”

  “Now that I think about it, you found me pretty quickly after I saw you jump into the mine. Did you defeat the demon that quickly?”

  “He was weak, the hellish zone that animated him didn’t have much bad energy in it. Hellish zones in Utopia are pretty weak and rare. We only have a few big ones we need to worry about.”

  “Are one of them the ancient ruins?”

  The paladin nodded. “You know your stuff, kid. This place is so corrupted that me and my group have to keep constant watch over it.”

  Shoku gulped, feeling a chill crawl down his spine. “So, what the holy knight said is true...he really is in there.”

  Sir Zolia chuckled. “The mad king? Yeah, He's hanging out somewhere in there.”

  Maddened king Arthes IX. No inhabitant of Utopia had failed to hear this name at least once in their lives. Shoku hated all of his tales; they talked about the Utopia pre-Darkening. Back then, this region was empty except for one mega city which held the entire population. This city was cut off from all of the others and was unkind to strangers. But for some reason Maeve managed to find a way into the throne room and convinced Arthes to become one of her royal advisors.

  Once the vile queen goddess had him, the rest is history; Arthes helped her create the spell for the darkening and kept a fragment of the key needed to open the palace where the base of said spell was. To make sure no one would steal it from him, he slaughtered all of his subjects. Utopia was left empty for many years until people fled the Middle when the demon king appeared in it centuries ago.

  The kid could only imagine what kind of hellish zone such tragedy had created.

  Shoku held onto the armored man, tighter. Since most of these stories were told to him as tales before bed. He had kind of forgotten that they were the reality of this world.

  The rest of the ride was pretty uneventful. Nothing but barren lands stretched around them, broken only by small patches of forest. Due to his time in Bloux, the boy had forgotten how desolate Utopia was outside of its cities.

  He got better used to the feeling of riding a horse after a while. So much so that he started to nod off.

  The moon was pretty low when the paladin gave him a gentle bump to wake him up.

  "Next town in view."

  Shoku leaned on the side to be able to see past the broad figure of the paladin. Immediately, he noticed the bright light of a church of light. All around it were houses, a lot of houses. This town was way bigger than Bloux and also not in a hole.

  The paladin stopped his horse at the edge of the settlement.

  “We’re stopping here for the night. I’ll go have a talk with the noble of this town to get us rooms to sleep in. In the meantime, you’re free to do as you please. Just meet me at the church of light in about two hours.”

  The paladin then helped Shoku off the back of his horse and handed him a small pouch. from the weight alone, the boy could tell it was full.

  “Just a few coins in case you see something you like.”

  ?A few!?? couldn't help but think the boy.

  He then simply looked at Sir Zolia ride right into town and disappear without any further instructions. Immediately, he put the money in the inside pocket of his new coat. Back in Bloux crime was pretty rare, but this place wasn’t Bloux.

  As he ventured into the town, he instantly felt the difference. The streets were way larger and less winding than the ones he was used to. Two carriages could easily travel side by side with no issues. The houses were also built differently; they were all attached to each other in long, straight rows. They were also completely identical; each was made of dark wood with three stories, a door made of paler wood and three simple shutters as windows.

  Each facade had two spore lanterns dangling on each side of the doors which served as the only source of light. The street between the houses was very dark. Because of that, the people walking around were carrying blue lanterns on them.

  Judging from the amount of men dragging pickaxes behind them, this was clearly another mining town. The miners were wearing simple clothes; most looked like they had been stitched up more than once. Their old, rusted tools weren’t looking any better in comparison.

  As he strolled through the streets, the citizens glanced at him with their tired eyes. Their gazes were anything but friendly; some even spat on the ground as he walked past them. The boy started to wonder if the people there were simply mean to newcomers or if it was maybe because of his wear. His whitish beige coat made him stand out like a sore thumb among these people in dark, dirty clothes.

  As the boy walked alongside the houses, he suddenly heard the cries of a woman coming from one of them. The whole building was shaking as utter chaos seemed to be happening inside of it.

  He could make out multiple voices screaming at each other.

  “You’re a disappointment!” said a deep, manly voice.

  This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

  “I don’t care!” shouted a younger voice.

  The window of the left neighboring house opened and an old man with a long gray beard peeked his head out. He grumbled:

  “For fuck's sake, they’re at it again!”

  Just then the commotion in the house seemed to get more violent until the door was flung open. A young guy came tumbling out of it, falling flat on his back in the middle of the street. He was wearing a plain grey shirt with black baggy pants. A black beanie covered his head, only letting a few ginger locks peek out from underneath.

  A big burly man in a dark tank top stopped at the door. His arms were just as thick as shoku’s thighs; he was without a doubt a hardened miner. The bald spot in the middle of his dark brown hair reflected the light of the lanterns as he pointed to the guy on his back:

  “I’m done with your whining, brat. Don’t ever come back in this damn house, you hear!?”

  The young man pushed himself off his back to look back at the burly man.

  “As if the thought of coming back into this dump would ever cross my mind!”

  “Shut your trap, son of a bitch!”

  “The bitch’s your wife!”

  “FUCK YOU!”

  “FUCK YOU!”

  The burly man slammed the door so violently, Shoku thought the hinges would come flying right off. The young man fell back on his back, breathing heavily as he put an arm over his face.

  People avoided him, careful not to get too close or even looking in his general direction.

  They were all whispering to each others with small smirks on their dark faces.

  Shoku managed to catch some snippets of what they were saying:

  “He had it coming.” whispered a woman

  “I’m surprised it took that long for that to happen.” grunted the old guy at the window

  “We're finally done with this guy.” snickered a young-looking miner.

  Seeing no one stopping to help, Shoku felt conflicted. On one hand, maybe he was a horrible guy and deserved that. But, on the other hand, he felt bad just looking at someone lying on the ground. Against his better judgement, Shoku decided to get involved.

  He approached the young man, offering him a hand. “Are you okay?”

  The young man moves his arm to stare at Shoku with grayish-green eyes. From up close, Shoku could see how low his beanie was, covering even his eyebrows. The young man looked him up and down before speaking:

  “Do I look okay?”

  Shoku reddened. “hum...no I guess, I mean that was a bit of a stupid question-”

  The young man grinned and accepted Shoku’s hand. “I’m just playing, dude.” Standing up, he was a head taller than the boy. “You’re definitely not from Ertache. The folks around here would have let me rot on the ground longer.”

  “Yeah, I just got here. I'm Shoku by the way.”

  “That’d be Akir for me.”

  Shoku couldn’t help but look back at the house from which this new acquaintance had just flown out of. Akir noticed and smirked.

  “Don’t mind that, the pops was just angry.”

  “Angry feels like a very soft word in this situation. What happened?”

  Akir rolled his eyes and started walking in a direction, dragging his feet on the ground. “Old fart’s just too hell bent on having the whole family work in the mines.”

  Shoku walked next to him. “And I get that you don’t like that”

  “Not at all. It's just so cramped and tight in these things.” A small shiver went through his body. “And don’t get me started on the pay and work conditions.”

  “Is it that bad? I'm also from a mining town, and the miners there aren’t that unhappy.”

  “I can believe that since they don’t have Coxus as their boss.”

  “Coxus...with such a weird name he can only be the noble of this town.”

  The ginger chuckled. “Yep, this rat is the greediest man I know. Miners have to pay for their own pickaxes and all of the other tools needed for the job. Obviously, we are barely paid enough to afford those.”

  Shoku thought back about all the people with old tools he saw. “So, miners can’t ever replace their tools?”

  “Ho you can, by simply taking a loan from the damn noble. After that you can get a nice pickaxe as well as a debt you’ll never be able to pay back.”

  The boy frowned. “So, either you are stuck with crumbling tools, or you just drown into debts? That's a lose-lose situation.”

  Akir laughed loudly. “Obviously! Where else would the fun be at?”

  “You’re just accepting it?”

  “Fuck nah, that’s why I'm leaving this shithole of a town.”

  Shoku couldn’t help but smile at the words of the young man. Their vulgarity kind of reminded him of Sister Xenevia.

  ?Am I already getting nostalgic? It hasn’t even been a full day since I left. ?

  “Are you gonna be fine by yourself?” Asked the smaller boy.

  “Don’t worry about that. I have an uncle working as a fisherman in Redshore. I’ll just figure out a way to get there.”

  Shoku’s eyes widened “No way! I'm going to Redshore too.”

  Akir smirked and wrapped an arm around the small boy’s shoulders. “Really, dude? Don't tell me we’re gonna be colleagues.”

  Shoku chuckled. “No, no. I'm going for totally different reasons. I'm traveling with a paladin who says that there’s a master who can train me there.”

  Akir smile froze on his face as his eyes sharpened. Shoku knew that his story wasn’t very believable. He could have said that he was traveling on dragon’s back and he would have more credibility. Anyway, Akir simply rubbed the boy’s back while nodding.

  “You’re a funny guy, I think we’re gonna get along just fine. Also, you’re staying at an inn or something? I don’t really want to hit the road this late.”

  “For that I need to go to the church of light.”

  Akir pinched his lips. “I doubt Yillin is going to let you sleep in his church.”

  “no... it’s where I need to meet up with my travel partner.”

  “The paladin?” snickered the young man.

  “Yeah...”

  “Well, I can guide you there if you want.”

  Shoku stayed silent as he looked up at the ginormous, shining tower erected right in the middle of the town. Even a blind man could not miss it. The boy simply smiled, a bit confused.

  “Thank you.”

  The two guys started heading out toward the town center while talking to get to know each other a bit more. As they got closer to the light, The houses started to get bigger and more expensive looking. The building material used for them was a smooth, pale blue stone instead of wood. These houses weren’t connected to each other; they had small gardens full of small violet flowers separating them. The road, which was nothing but dirt until that point, was now paved. Tall metallic streets lights were built at each side of the path to light up the areas that the white light wasn’t reaching.

  Shoku was completely stunned by this abrupt change. While there were some differences between the houses of Bloux depending on how close they were to the church. The differences weren’t that striking. At this point, he felt like he had entered a completely new place.

  Without counting the church of light, the center of Ertache was pretty empty. There was only some sort of massive manor standing right behind the church which was taking up an absurd amount of space.

  Now that he was closer to the church, the boy could tell that this one was taller than the one of Xenevia in exchange for being skinnier at the top. This way the light reached further around it. The church was also immaculate looking; The silver coloring of the wall was pristine, the windows were so clear that they were almost invisible, and the stairs were still noticeably white.

  Shoku got closer to it with shimmering eyes. “It’s so different from the one I'm used to.”

  “Don’t get too close.” warned him, Akir. “We have specific hours when we can enter it.”

  “What? But I thought churches of light were always opened to anyone.”

  The ginger shrugged. “Maybe, but I'm pretty sure each lightbringer does as they please. Yillin is a clean freak, so he only lets us enter in the morning. This way, he can spend the rest of his day, cleaning up.”

  “Wow, Xenevia could never.”

  “Xenevia?” said a mysterious voice.

  Both boys looked behind them to see the approaching figure of a tall man. His skin was as white as snow, and his hair was a shining yellow color. His eyes were two pale orbs with barely visible blue dots in them. If his white robe, adorned by long pearls necklaces, wasn’t enough to guess his identity; the man knives shaped ears gave away his identity as a lightbringer.

  Perched on his shoulder, was a thin star owl with deep blue eyes and undersides.

  Akir grunted. “Hello, Brother Yillin.”

  Shoku looked the lightbringer up and down. “So, this is Yillin...”

  “It’s Brother Yillin for you, human.” the holy man stepped closer to the small boy, glancing down at him with genuine disdain. “You talked about Xenevia didn’t you? Then it’s no wonder that you lack basic respect.”

  Akir stepped in front of Shoku, looking at the lightbringer with a confident smirk. “Cut him some slack, he just got here.”

  “And? A human should know how to talk to one of his saviors.”

  Brother Yillin let out a long, dragged-out sigh. The boy felt uneasy as the pale eyes of the man stared at him with nothing but pity in them. Why was he getting so agitated? The boy had only forgotten one word.

  “I’m sorry, Brother Yillin. I didn’t know that your title was that important.” muttered Shoku.

  The long-eared man nodded, pleased by these words. “Perhaps you aren’t as hopeless as I thought you were. I guess that Xenevia didn’t completely waste her talent on that mud hole.”

  “Bloux is more than a mud hole. And Sister Xenevia isn’t wasting anything!” said the boy between his teeth.

  Brother Yillin clicked his tongue. “Ho she is. This woman could have easily been managing a church in one of the most prestigious places of the Middle and yet she’s tending to peasants like you.”

  “She can do as she pleases. She doesn’t have to deal with the old mother you all praise.”

  Shoku immediately regretted his words. He shily stared at the lightbringer whose face was scrunched in anger; his blue eyes were now vividly flickering. Even Akir pinched his lips and let out an impressed whistle.

  “What did you just call your queen goddess?” the holy Brother looked like he was about to explode at any second. He glared at the young ginger in front of Shoku. “Out of my way, I need to set this ignorant back on the right track.”

  Akir stared at shoku behind him them back at the Brother, he smirked. “I’m leaving this place anyway so, no. I’m not gonna move.”

  The man’s eyes flared a bright blue as he stomped closer. “The both of you are just sick in the head. I'll-”

  An armored hand came to rest on the shoulder of the lightbringer. He looked back to see the imposing figure of Sir Zolia in his Lunargent armor. The Brother looked confused for a second but sure enough, his eyes dimmed down and his face got its composure back.

  Sir Zolia took off his helmet and did a quick bow before talking:

  “I am deeply sorry for the comportment of this child, Brother of light. He is under my responsibility so I should be punished instead of him.”

  Brother Yillin clicked his tongue. “That child seems to be drifting toward the path of heresy. He must be fixed at once.”

  “I assure you that no such thing is happening. This boy grew far away from the light. He is still stunned by its radiance.” The paladin slipped a quick wink toward Shoku.

  Having dealt with the constant irritation of Xenevia, Shoku knew what to do. “Yes Brother, the white light is still new to me and learning to accept its beauty is kinda scaring me.”

  Akir looked extremely confused. “But didn’t you tell me that you spent a good three y-”

  Shoku gave the ginger a quick kick to shut him up. “I am, once again, sorry.”

  Brother Yillin smirked and rubbed his chin. “I understand the situation better. I too would feel jealousy if I discovered the one true religion.” the man laughed to himself as Shoku cringed internally.

  “Well, paladin, make sure to keep a good eye on this human baby. We wouldn’t want a similar situation to happen, do we?” The lightbringer walked into his church, but not before removing his shoes first as to no dirty the clean tiles. In a few seconds he was gone.

  Shoku looked at Sir Zolia. “Are all lightbringer like this?”

  “Hmm, they each have their own quirks but if you’re talking about how fast they are to anger and how easy they are to charm then it’s a yes.”

  Akir looked back and forth between the paladin and the small boy, not believing in his eyes. “So, you weren’t joking about the paladin.”

  “I wasn’t.”

  Akir put an arm around Shoku, pulling him closer as he smiled brightly at Sir Zolia.

  “Hello, mister knight. I'm this little buddy’s best friend”

  ?We just met, what are you talking about? ?

  The paladin looked impressed at Shoku “I didn’t pin you for the super social type.”

  ?I’m not. ?

  Akir continued. “I heard that you were going to Redshore, and guess what? I'm going too. You definitely wouldn’t mind an extra traveling companion, huh?”

  “I definitely would,” replied the armored man.

  “Come on, you’re a knight, you definitely wouldn’t let a young guy travel alone.”

  “I definitely would because I cannot take both of you on my horse. We would have to go by foot and that would mean spending even more time away from my post.” suddenly, the paladin’s eyes lit up; he started mumbling to himself. “A longer time away from my duties.”

  ...

  “You can come!” The paladin smiled brightly.

  “Thank you, man.” The ginger beamed back.

  “Anyway, I got us two rooms in the noble’s manor.” the paladin pointed at the large manor next to the church of light. “Since I didn’t account for any extra company, you two will have to share a room.”

  “Don’t worry, we’re best buddies so it’s no problem. isn’t it, my guy?”

  Akir simply rubbed Shoku’s back; the boy still didn’t know what was happening around him. as they walked toward the manor, the paladin added:

  “We’re leaving in the morning so be ready.”

  Akir smiled at the boy under his arm and raised his other hand for a first bump. “That’s so cool, we’re gonna be traveling together for a little while.”

  Shoku looked at the fist for a while before lifting his own to meet it without another word.

  ?I think I just have a thing that attracts weird people. ?