Quintessence of Arcana

The Girl Named Aria

Darkness...

A void of endless darkness.

And in this particular space, a silhouette of a man stood silently. He seemed to be devoid of emotions, as he fixedly stared at the horizon with his soulless eyes.

But at some point, a ball of light came out from nowhere and gently approach the man. After a short moment, the ball of light manifested and transformed into a well-endowed woman, dressed in white. She was staring at the seemingly immovable man with a bright smile on her face.

She moved closer to the man and put one of her hands on top of his chest. A warm light seemingly enveloped the man, but somehow, the man remained unfazed. In the next moment, the woman stood on her tiptoes and slowly move her face closer to the man, and with a gentle touch.......

Flash!

Faint rays of sunlight pass through a window and hit a young man's sleeping face, seemingly waking him up from his dreams. He slowly opened his eyes, but he still lay motionlessly on the bed. Only after he heard noises from outside that he decided to get up. He slowly walked outside the shack and happened to met a similarly young man that is waiting for him.

“You're finally up. I've been waiting for you,” Croen smiled. He throw a piece of bread to Erald and said, “Here's your breakfast. This is your first day here after you woke up from your 'five-year slumber' so you need to build up energy.”

“Oh, thanks brother Croen...” Erald happily received the bread.

The snow-covered grounds, which was half-empty yesterday, is now filled with bustling people of all kinds including the elderly, full-grown adults, and children. However, someone immediately attracted most of the people’s attention. Right away, the crowd's eyes showed unfriendliness, and even several kids made an exaggerated sharp sound.

“She is here! It is that ugly girl!”

“She is coming again! Father, I don’t want to see her, she looks so scary!”

“Come, let’s hit her, hit her!”

Not only the children, even those adults, who wore fur clothes, showed obvious disgust. The person they were referring to is none other than the blond-haired girl that Erald met yesterday. Hearing the insults of the people around her, the face of the blond-haired girl became pale. She tightened her hands around her clothes, as her eyes were sparkling with tears.

Noticing several stones were thrown to the girl, Erald frowned his eyebrows, then subconsciously proceeded to catch all the coming stones. He followed up by throwing those very stones back to the children who threw them. The children were stunned for a moment, then simultaneously cried out loudly. Erald's manner was like stirring a beehive and inevitably caused some people to shout at him.

Soon, an irritable middle-aged man shouted loudly. “What are you doing?!” Then the man immediately throw the bowl in his hand down towards Erald.

Croen was about to step forward but was stopped by grandpa Gin at the side who shook his head solemnly. Croen was confused, but he never felt the need to go against his granfather, so he had just stood there and kept his silence.

Warching the scene unfolding, Grandpa Gin narrowed his old eyes, carefully observing Erald’s every move. Others didn’t managed to noticed it, but he clearly saw it. The stones that were thrown at the girl seemed to changed it's direction and moved to Erald's hands instead, rather than actually being caught. In fact, even Erald himself was somehow oblivious of this.

Grandpa Gin clearly knew that Erald was definitely not an ordinary person to begin with, but he didn't expect him to be this 'unordinary' to the point of being mysterious. The ability that Erald just showed right at the moment made him slightly intrigue.

On the other hand, the middle-aged man’s hands were tightly holding Erald. Suddenly, Erald’s eyes became cold, and he bend his wrist instinctively. Hearing a crunching sound, the middle-aged man’s right hand broke, and he screamed like a dying pig. The group quietly started to mess before them. Then, several people came at Erald all together, while the rest threw the things in their hands at the young girl and Erald.

At this moment, Erald subconsciously relied on his instincts, as he stepped forward. His right hand grabbed someone’s right arm, while his left hand grabbed that person’s left hand, then incredibly used his slim body to threw out that person till he heard two crunchy sound of bones breaking. Another person was tripped by him, as he took a casual step forward and stepped onto that person’s ankle. It was as if he was using some uncanny power to break the man's foot bones.

On the other hand, the things that were being thrown, returned at high speeds back to where they came from, directly at their throwers face. Erald just casually waved his hands and a faint, wave of energy surge and repelled them back. He didn't even used his full strength.

Instantly, several adults and middle-aged men all fell into the ground, covering their wrists and ankles, and showing painful faces. Those aggressive children, who had gotten purple bruises on their face, now cried out even more loudly after seeing their fathers got beaten up. Only those trembling old men and several frightened women were not hurt at all.

“You! Why did you hurt us?” The middle-aged man who first attacked asked with pain.

“Because you're bullying the weak,” Erald answered coldly.

The middle-aged man widened his mouth but couldn’t say anything.

“What’s wrong? Can't say anything?” Erald laughed and stepped onto that man’s chest, looking down on him. “She is weak and does not have the ability to resist. You are stronger than her, which gives you the reason to drive her away and bully her. Since I'm stronger than you, does this mean I can do it to you as well? If you can treat her like this, then how can you complain when others treat you the same?”

Erald kicked that middle-aged man away then lifted up a child who looks to be around seven years old, shouting, “Stop crying!”

The child was so frightened that he stopped crying immediately and looked at Erald with two eyes that are filled with tears.

“Who is your father?” Erald asked coldly.

“It's him... him.” The child wanted to cry but dared not cry, he sniffled softly with his nose and pointed to the man who had his ankles broken just now.

“Did he ever teach you not to bully?”

“H-he... he taught me.”

“Then why did you still bully her?” Erald pointed at the young woman.

“Because, because she looks too ugly and others bully her, so.....”

“Oh? Then I will make you look like an ugly monster and let you feel how bad it is when others bully you, will it be okay?” Erald stretched out his fingers and moved slowly on his face. The child was so scared and burst into tears.

“No, I won’t, I won’t bully her any more....”

Gently putting him on the ground, Erald walked to his father without any emotion. “You even taught your child not to bully, yet you're the one who's strongly doing it. What an irresponsible parent you are.”

The middle-aged man moved his lip but couldn't say nothing. This sense of terror spawned from Erald's cruel expression.

“Let it go.”

Grandpa Gin finally stood up and interjected in a mild way, ”Young man, they are wrong, but they are not evil people. They did it out of instinct. I guess they won’t do it again. I will ask them to apologize to the young girl later. Can you let it go this time just to do a favor for me, is it okay?"

Erald turned his back, and the anger on his face vanished at once. He replied solemnly,” grandpa Gin, you saved my life, I won’t go against your will. But if it happens next time, I will hit them again.”

He then used his foot to reach out a stone bowl then held it in his hand while flatly saying, “Let this shall be a lesson for any of you. If I ever come to know that someone is bullying the weak again, I will crush his bones!”

He tightened his right hand, and that hard stone bowl immediately crushed into powder. Finely-powdered sand then flowed out from his fingertips, which frightened their pale faces. The rest who still tried to rebel, were directly scared silly, and just keep quiet.

“You can all go now.” Grandpa Gin waved his hands. This place was a complete mess, so he guessed that no one would continue eating.

As the surrounding crowd leaved in a hurry, Erald turn to the girl and smiled, “Are you okay?”

The girl on the other hand just nodded in response. Perhaps due to shyness.

Erald gazed gently into her eyes. It was her starry eyes that seemingly intrigued him. Loneliness. Panic. Confusion. Helplessness. All were hidden in her starry eyes.

Erald couldn’t help but bent down. He then reached out his hands and gently stroked the left side of her face with the blood-colored birthmark-like thing. At first, the girl was completely startled, widening her eyes and mouth. But after she noticed the gentle expression on Erald's handsome face, she just stood still as if she was immovable, allowing herself to feel Erald's caress.

A few moments later, Erald took his hands back as he asked, “What is your name, little lady?”

The girl stared blankly at Erald for a short moment before she replied with a weak voice, “My name is.... Ar... ia.”

“Aria?” Erald widen his eyes. “What a beautiful name.”

The girl nodded shyly in response.

“Uhm... where are your family? And why are you here?”

“I don't... know... I have been here since I woke up, so I have no idea of what happened to me...” The girl shook her head. Her beating heart slowly calm down.

“You can’t remember anything, right?”

The girl was surprise again then nodded with helpless eyes. She didn't know her family, no past memories, and the only thing she remembered is her name. Almost every person here hates her, hitting her with sticks or stones when they met her. But she can only try very hard to escape and hide to cry in an empty corner. She just instinctively tries to survive, with no companions, and no goals.

“I see.” Erald smiled to her again. They shared similar experience. Both showed up inexplicably, and both lost their memories aside from their names. This might be called doomed destiny.

Some tender affection came out from the bottom of Erald's heart, so he said, “Do you want to follow me? I won’t make you starve and even protect you from the bullies...”

The girl looked at him vacantly, as she had no idea on how to answer this. In fact, deep down in her heart, she felt very happy. But then, as she realized her situation, she shook her head and cowardly said, “C-can I? They all hated me and hit me, because I...”

Erald stood up and took her small hands. “Follow me, from now on, you are my sister. No one can bully you without my consent.”

The girl stared at him and felt the warm strange hand which was holding her own little, delicate hand. She didn't even noticed that her eyes were brimming with tears.

He took her hands and promised to protect her when she was hated, when she thought she was discarded by the world. From that moment, his image was branded deeply into her heart, permanently. She could not stop her emotional attachment to him just like how people got addicted to the most poisonous of opium in the world.

In this fated moment, Two courses of life which are seemingly left out from the world finally crossed together.

Erald immediately asked grandpa Gin's permission to let Aria live in their place. The old man on the other hand just smiled and didn't object to him, making Erald overjoyed. He bowed and said, “Thank you grandpa Gin for letting Aria stay, and I'm sorry for the trouble I brought you recently.”

Grandpa Gin didn’t nod or shake. Instead, he sighed, “It is human beings’ instinct to reject ugly things. We cannot blame them for everything.”