Remnant of Malachus

Chapter 4

Ahhhhhh, the sun is blinding my eyeeeee.

I stood at the top of the stairway that leads down to the tunnel, I could barely see the sun rising. Everything was quiet and calm, it's not so bright and the weather is quite welcoming, it's as if the world is rewarding me for doing something amazing.

I better get back soon, Miss Mary needs help with the morning rush hour. I walk across the long hallway and walk down the stairs. The streets are silent, a really warming glow fills the empty walkway. I make my way south, back to the cafe. People are preparing to start their day, windows are getting opened, clothes that were left to dry are being collected, people preparing horse carriages.

~

A little while later, I arrived at the cafe, it's about 7 in the morning, one hour left until the opening. Brace yourself for a scolding. I opened the door and enter, I see Miss Mary sitting on one of the tables, looking stressed. I walk in slowly and close the wooden door behind me.

"hello Miss."

 "Nero! Wait whe-you-UGH!" She looks like she's mad, as expected, don't know what she's mad about though. Is it the fact that I came back late and she's worried for me or she's mad about the fact that I'm late to work?

"Where were you..." Her tone changed completely, she had a worried expression on her face. Our eyes met, I stare into her bright emerald green eyes that were filled with worry and dumbfoundedness.

"I was in the dungeon," I answered honestly, I am surprised, we've only known each other for 2 weeks, I normally cut the conversation short with simple answers and she is always the one who needs to continue. It hasn't even been a month yet and she acts like she's my mother. Why? Why does she care so much? It's not normal to care for a stranger this much.

"You seriously are an idiot..." Wow, she looks like she's about to cry.

"You came back injured again... what am I suppose to do with you..." There was a pause.

"... You can just rest today, you have the day off. I'll give you some money, go to the church, and get healed or something..." She is at a loss for words, I don't know what's going through her mind, but having a day off sounds great, I've been exhausted, dirty, and smelly since last night.

"yaayyyy."

She was still staring at me, but I really don't care though. I walk past her, and go behind the counter, enter the room that was behind, and went up the stairs, quickly navigating the hallway, I make my way to the second room on the right and opened it.

This is my room, one bed, one closet, and one table with a bunch of books on it. I lay down on the bed, oh, it has never been so soft before. Last night was exhausting, I'm tired, I thought I was done for. I can't though, I can't die, even if it hurts, I can't give up. That was my father's last wish, and I have my mother to take care of, no matter hard it gets, I can't give up until my mother is out of that crystal. I carry the burden of my entire family on my shoulders. It's been 5 years since my father's death where I was left alone, I worked like hell to be able to survive. I miss my brother, I miss my family.

What a pain in the ass this is...

~

I had fallen asleep, it's now 11 am, I've rested and am now fully charged. Distant conversations can be heard when I walk out of the hallway.  It's almost lunchtime, a lot of people will come in, I have to sell the loot I got from the hunt, including the hobgoblin tooth, wonder how much it sells for, but I can do that later, might as well get on Miss Mary's good side a little more. She told me I could rest, but wow look at me, voluntarily helping her out, what a wonderful person I am, haha. The loan shark will come tomorrow, the day I get my salary, maybe I could get a little extra if I work harder.

The longest I've stayed in one job for is 6 months, I was working for an old lady, helping out with her small floral shop near the west gate of Malakai, absolutely sweet, bakes the best cookies, after being pressured by the loan sharks, she still took pity on me and try to help me as much as possible, never told her about the circumstances though. Eventually, she couldn't handle it, it was my fault, I didn't have enough money to pay them, so they destroyed the shop. Obviously, I was fired, she broke down into tears and cursed at me, she loved her job, it was only natural. I know I'm being selfish and causing trouble for her, but I can't bring myself to feel guilty about it, I'm sorry, truly.

I took a quick bath and dress up in my cafe uniform, white shirt with long sleeves, a black vest on top, long, black trousers, and headed downstairs. I made sure to bandage up my injured right hand and tuck it under the shirts' sleeve so it is completely invisible, customers might be put off by it.

I came out of the room and stood behind the counter. It was busy as usual, Miss Mary had to do all the serving by herself, every seat has been occupied, loud chatters fill the room. Running everywhere is Miss Mary, doing everything by herself. Aiya, and you told me to rest, how selfless.

"Order please!" A customer yelled out.

"Coming in a fe-"

"yes sir, will be right there." I cut her off. Miss Mary was holding a tray of leftovers in one hand and newly brewed drinks in the other, how si she supposed to take an order?

"Nero!? I thought I told you, you had the day off!?"

I nod in response.

"WHY AR-" She was cut off by a call for the drinks.

"I'll talk to you after this."

It's so noisy in here...

~

After everything calmed down, I start washing the dishes beside Miss Mary.

"I thought I told you, you had the day off, no?" She was resting her chin on the table, looking exhausted.

"yea, but there were so many people."

"You should rest you know? Did you even get any sleep last night? Take care of yourself a little."

"I did sleep a bit, still tired though."

"See? SO R-E-S-T TODAY. I gave you permission."

"you look tired yourself, doing everything by yourself, maybe you should rest a little too."

"What? No? This is my job?!"

"it's mine as well." Technically true.

"YEA-! But-!... My point is!..." She hastily turned around in amazement.

"Ugh, whatever, it's not like I can stop you. Just don't overdo it...or something..." Miss Mary slumps back down on the table.

At the very least Miss Mary is a very understanding person, she nags me, she scolds me, she gets angry, but she understands it very well, that I won't listen to her. I won't be here for any longer, I think, I hope,  because I'm afraid to grow attached to this place, to Miss Mary, after losing my family, I've worked my ass off every single day, to fulfill my dad's last wish, and to pursue a slim chance of being with my mother again. I'm afraid to trust them because I don't want my trust to be destroyed. You could say that I just don't want to get hurt.

"Come here..." Miss Mary sounds like she is trying to offer something to me.

"hm?" I look back at her, I put the last plate on the drying rack on my left.

"Your arm's hurt, right? I'll wrap it properly for you. Sit down."

"That the least I can do." She mumbled out quietly.

I wasn't expecting that at all, how nice.

"ok then." I pull the chair next to her and sat down. Miss Mary began unwrapping it.

"How horrible..." she saw the bite marks and small claw marks.

She took out a new piece of bandage and wrap it carefully around my arm. We sit quietly, no words were exchanged during the process. Miss Mary seems to be in deep thought though.

"Anddd... Done." Her voice seems a little down.

"thank you."

"Your welcome..."She stops for a bit.

"Look, Nero. How about we rest today?"

"we?"

"How about this, let's only opening half day today, I'm quite exhausted too." That's an obvious lie, you're tired, but you can take away more than this Miss Mary, is this your way of forcing me to not work?

"deal then. I'll help close the shop then."

"No, I can do it myself, you go do whatever you want."

How kind. It's rare to meet people you genuinely care for you, I've only known this woman for a while yet all she does is worry about me.

"ok then." Miss Mary, when the time comes. Can I trust you?

With that, she smiles, a gentle smile forms on her face, no wonder customers keep coming back, what a man-killer.

~

I pick up my loot pouch that is full of goblin ears and the hobgoblin's tooth that was lying on the table. There's an almost corpse-like smell that fills my room, better get rip of that soon, I open up the window to see a sea of building that stretch until the horizon, the blue, calm sky filled, and a cool breeze. The market in front of here is quiet, people usually don't come here anymore. I left the window open and walk out of the cafe's front door.

~

I navigate my way through the roads and made my way northwest of Malachai, it's a long travel distance, 1 hour on a carriage and about 2 hours on foot. And I've reached the hunter's district, Elpida, shouting, and music can be heard 24/7 here, blacksmiths, alchemist shops, food, bars, pawnshops, everything that is related to hunting it's all here. A large gaping entrance, this district was built underground because it was said to be too large and would be a waste of space, shops parallel to each other on both sides all disorganized and filled to the brim with people. The lighting gives off a night-life kinda vibe since there is no direct sunlight, I make my descent and enter the dark yet festive town. My main goal today is selling the loots I got from yesterday, and my secondary goal is to go to the library, the library in Elpida is dedicated to only hunting. All the books are about hunting, the history, strategies, equipment, etc. things like that, having more information won't hurt I guess.

I make my way deeper into the city, hunters are all over the place, elves wearing heavy-plated armor, mages with their long, majestic robes walking around in intimidating groups, knights in their usual shining armor, the city of Elpida is living up to its reputation as the city of hunters. What I notice as I navigate my way through is that I see a lot of guards, an unusual amount, I've been here a few times yet it seems that every store has a personal guard now. Guards in Malakai acts as a peace-keeping force called the Malakain Guardian Unit that acts under several captains, which in turn, acts under the general, the highest rank you can earn in the military. What is weird is that hunters are usually not considered part of the military even though they make up most of the forces during wars. Mainly in Malakai, there are three official government branches, the hunting guild, the military, and the royal court. But not all of them hold equal power, the royal court holds absolute power over both the guild and the military, the head of the royal court is, after all, the king. It still gives me a feeling of uneasiness though, why so many guards here?

After walking for a few minutes, I've arrived in front of a general store, I've been to this place a few times, normally I would sell my goblin ears at the guild since it is one of the wanted materials, but when I forget, I come here to the general store. It was a wooden building, with a big sign on top, two windows on both sides of the building. This is the first place I've ever come to in Elpida. I open the wooden door and walk in, the chatters seem to be able to penetrate through the wall a bit, but it is comparably quieter here. The building is pretty dark, having only some lamps on the walls, it is filled with shelves, on them are many things, jars, bottles, packs, paper-wrapped items, and even weapons. I walk to the right, where the counter is located. The store owner here is an old succubus, she always smokes, her horn has grown long due to age, and she is quite...large...Her husband is a human, about 60-70 years old but I've only met him once.

"Welcome to the shop, what may I help you with." Her tone of voice was very unique, she has the normal, seductive, succubus accent but it was hoarse and surprisingly gentle.

"I would like to sell some goblin ears and a bunch of hobgoblin's teeth."

"Hobgoblin's teeth! Those are hard to come by?!" She seems surprised.

I lay everything on the table.

"5...9...14...22 pairs of goblin ears. That would be 286 coins...~" She was mumbling by herself.

She takes a look at the teeth, a total of 14 fang-like teeth lays on the table.

"Hm, these have some damage to them, but I'll manage to get quite a high price with them..~"

"14 of them...28,000 coins then.~"

2,000 per tooth?! I'm amazed at the price. At this point, I wouldn't need the salary from Miss Mary anymore!

"Woah."

"Is that a deal~?" She looks at me.

"yes." What a steal.

She hands me, a pouch of gold coins, 242 of them, 8 silver coins, and 6 bronze. A total of 28,286 coins in total.

What a steal! What a steal! WHAT A STEAL!

"thank you." I gave my short reply and left the shop.

But before long I was stopped right in my tracks by a sudden thought.

"Miss, may I ask something."

"Sure, young hunter~." She exhales a cloud of smoke.

"Why is it so expensive?" 14 teeth of 28,000 coins is a bit overpriced, it's a good thing for me, yes, but I couldn't help wondering.

"No one goes for hobgoblins anymore, their teeth are hard to come by, everyone just wants to go for the rarer monsters that catch a higher price~. But their demands haven't decreased that much, so I'm willing to pay a higher price for it~. Actually, people might even go higher for it, I was intending on buying it for at least 35,000 but since you didn't bargain at all, I felt like it was an easy steal~."

Wha- SCAM.

"Before you say anything, I'm not giving you anymore~."

Fine then.

I was about to the door.

"Young hunter~! By the way, do your best out there ok? There's still a long way ahead~. Grow stronger and come to support us some more.~"

I just nod to her so I could be let off.

What a day.