North East, In a dumping zone at the edge of Mistwood.

  A massive warehouse, something vaguely resembling a barn due to its crude exterior and choice of material, stands tall.

  Several hills of garbage cover the ground near it. Some of them sat neatly close to the giant wall. Others scattered like the small heaps here and there.

  Due to the slight toxicity, the soil had long turned grey. Stepping on it, is a man wearing a white fur coat atop undergarments of the same color.

  Avoiding the warehouse and the few workers in the distance. Elyas walks behind an obviously old pile of rubble and wet, rotten garbage. It has been leaning against the wall for long enough to leave its sludge dripping from its bricks.

  After hesitating and looking at his clean, comfortable fur coat, Elyas lets out a sigh, opens a window, puts his coat in, and fishes out a shovel.

  Not long after he starts digging, he finds what he was looking for.

  In the pile of rubble and rotten food, a fat man wearing a red shirt with bloodshot eyes could be seen. The man's hands are tied up to iron pipes shoved deep into the pile, and the man's mouth is stuffed to the point of suffocation.

  To Elyas's surprise, the man was wide awake. Suddenly freed, he struggled, as if happy to be liberated from its capturer. But as his eyes focused and filtered the sunlight, he shuddered.

  “…Nice to see you kicking.”

  Elyas bent down, grabbed the cloth covering the man's mouth. Immediately, he spat and shouted:

  “Somone! please help m—” Before he could finish though, Elyas grabbed his face and stuffed the trash back inside. After he wrapped it up with dirty cloth again, Elyas's already unamused expression turned into a deep frown.

  “Why do you make it difficult for yourself? You'll just be staying here for a while… It's not like I'm going to kill you.”

  Elyas paused, looking at the man. He was weeping and pleading with his teary eyes.

  If it was anyone else, they would have been fooled. But Elyas knew better. He knew what he had done.

  leaning closer he spat, letting a dark and cold tone wash over the captive.

  “You know what you did, Sandl. Yet, you still think someone like you deserves saving…I'll be doing the world and you a favour if I finished you right here.”

  A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

  “...” Sandl stared at Elyas with nothing but fright and his usual, silent plea.

  “So just shut up and eat. You don't want to starve again, do you?”

  After hesitating, the fat manager nodded his head reluctantly. Elyas removed the cloth again.

  “...” Both stared at each other for a bit in silence. Seeing the manager not doing anything rash, Elyas secretly heaved a sigh of relief.

  Afterwards, he opened a window to grab some food. Seizing the distraction, Sandl acted. Inhaling deeply, he shouted at the top of his lungs.

  “Help—”

  Elyas acted quickly, stuffing his boot in the man's mouth.

  “God damn it Sandl! What the f*ck did I just say?!”

  Elyas looked down frantically, found the pieces of cloth, and re-did everything.

  Looking around to make sure no one saw him, he started to climb the pile. Standing a few metres above Sandl, he said:

  “... it seems you're not hungry today. I'll come back tomorrow.” Elyas jumped, putting all his weight into it. The pile crumbled under his feet, burying the manager as a result.

  ‘Well, there's that.’

  Elyas nodded in satisfaction. Dusting himself and wearing his comfortable, pristine coat, after putting the shovel away, he walked the same way he came. A few workers and civilians were moving about, organizing or disposing of trash.

  As he walked past the heaps and mountains of garbage, he suddenly lost his footing. But before he could fall face flat, he was stopped by a pair of hands.

  “Are you alright?” A deep, yet feminine voice asked. Elyas opened his instinctively closed eyes, and looked for the source of the voice.

  It belonged to a woman with dark straight hair who wore a tunic of the same color. Her clothes were dirty and dusty but they did little to hide the beauty underneath. Her face was decorated with green, shining gem-like eyes. Currently, they were staring at him with a question.

  “I said are you alright?”

  Elyas came back to his senses. Getting up and away from the lady. “Oh… um, yes I'm fine. I guess I slipped on a banana peel.”

  Indeed, the perpetrator was laying on the ground. motionless, how a banana should be.

  She looked at him up and down, then at the ground with an amused expression.

  “Oh, count yourself lucky then. It's been a few years since we hadn't had any bananas. It's an honour to slip on one at this point.”

  Elyas let out a wry smile and nodded, signalling his leave. The woman, understanding, stepped aside.

  ‘Damn, she's fine… Should I ask Noah for a brothel? Never mind. I sound like a pervert already, taking his clothes and all that…’ Elyas, contemplating on his approach to get rid of the unnecessary thoughts, walked away.

  As he was nearing the boundary of the dumping ground, he lost his footing again. This time, instead of a beautiful woman, someone's forehead broke his fall.

  Opening his eyes again and massaging his own forehead, Elyas's eyes widened. In front of him, doing the same thing, was a familiar man of average height clad in nothing but black.

  “Noah? What are you doing here?”

  After hearing Elyas's voice, he opened his eyes immediately. Suppressing the urge to ask the same, he pointed down towards a few bags laying near his feet.

  “What do you think? Here to take out the trash… do you visit here regularly or…”

  “No. No… I just wanted to take care of some garbage.”

  Noah looked at him with a dubious expression. At the same time, he pointed at the bags again. Elyas, noticing how stupid of a lie that was, quickly tried to come up with another one.

  “Uhh… how should I put this…” Elyas paused, as if considering his next words carefully.

  “Julius made me fight a giant, ugly, furious man. In the process…” Elyas dozed off at the end. But that didn't matter. Noah had already heard enough.

  “Don't tell me…”

  “Yeah…” Elyas said, pointing to his white linen shirt and pants.

  Noah's face twitched painfully. Inhaling deeply to calm himself down, he spat in anger.

  “That damned brute! How many times have I told him to stop already?! Another set, GONE!”

  Elyas watched his friends uproar at the giant's endless cruelty, and tried to calm him down.

  After a bit of consolidation, Noah stared at Elyas for an uncomfortably long time, seemingly remembering something.

  “Oh! It's good that I saw you here actually. We can do it today. I have good news!”

  Elyas raised an eyebrow.

  “Oh, do tell them.”

  Noah strained his posture and spoke with a tone full of pride and arrogance. “Well, first, I successfully arranged the visit with the Librarians. That is no easy task…”

  Elyas's face perked up with interest. But seeing Noah pause for no reason, yet, maintain that attitude, he deliberated before asking.

  “...Is that it?”

  Noah's smirk got wider. “Oh, I thought you'd never ask! To answer your Inquiry…no.”

  “It's nothing important, really. Just you know, something you desperately need…” Noah said with a teasing tone, but seeing Elyas's unamused expression, he sighed.

  “You're no fun. We're supposed to be friends you know… Well, anyway. I arranged for us to visit a Seer.

  Elyas's eyes widened in an instant, he opened his mouth to speak. But before a single word could come out, Noah spoke with visible glee.

  “You're finally getting to know your Cost!”