Tap..Tap..

*Creek

Maru entered the building. The room was filled with four chairs spread out across the room, and at the center area of the room, there’s a front desk. It purposes as a workplace for a receptionist to do administration work. Exactly left of the receptionist’s table, there’s a metal door. 

Maru found another man dressed similarly to him sitting on a nearby chair. “Heyy rookie, help me open the cell, will you?”.

“Yes, Sir !” The Rookie then went to the metal door. He took some keys from the receptionist’s desk and opened the door.

*Ghmm

Maru then followed The Rookie, entering another door that leads to the dungeon cell. Behind the door, a down staircase is present. It is followed by a corridor with weapons and ends with a gate incorporated with metal bars. There another guard is currently on duty, and he is The Jail Keeper.

“How have you been, Maru?” said The Jail Keeper with a smile.

“Meh. Same old-same old!” Maru replied.

“Hahaha. So what business are you here for?” The Jail Keeper asked.

Maru then diverts his eyes. He nudged and signaled The Jail Keeper to come closer.

“This woman needs to be put inside as soon as possible, Code-14.” Maru whispers.

The Jailkeeper widened his eyes and opened the metal gate without hesitation. From, that gate there’s another corridor with many jail cells. 

“Rookie! Come with me !” Maru walks inside the gate to the jail cell corridors.

***

After the ‘incident’ with Mika and Serena, Xaviel was brought to a house. The house was owned by Mika’s family. The household consists of Mika’s parents, her brother Maru and Mika herself. Xaviel also finds out that Serena isn’t exactly blood-related with Mika. Instead, She owns and lives at another house near Mika’s place.

She often plays with Mika in his brother’s place since he was in the village guard. Of course, Mika then started to call Serena her big sis. She got upgraded from neighbour to family. Which Xaviel deems to be quite funny.

Now, Xaviel is sitting in a chair being served tea by Mika’s parents, Hoff Crestia and Quilla Crestia. They appear to be a pleasant and civil individual. Xaviel feels very comfortable as he could get used to hospitality. 

“Mr. Xaviel was it?” said Hoff while pouring another dosage of tea into Xaviel’s cup.

“Yes. It’s Xaviel,” said Xaviel while sipping tea.

“From what Serena has said, you were her slave?” Hoff said in confusion.

Gosh. Is this where hospitality goes downhill? Thought Xaviel.

“Umm.. Apparently yes,” Xaviel replied.

“Oh, I see…” Hoff said with a troubled face. He then turns his attention to his wife beside him. 

“Quilla Dear, would you please call Serena here. I think she’s in the backyard playing with Mika,” Hoff said.

“Not a problem, Darling.” Quilla then walked to the back.

Moments of silence then passed as Hoff and Xaviel waited for Quilla to come back. After a few minutes, Quilla returned with Serena and Mika, not forgetting to bring more snacks. Serena then sits to the chair left of Xaviel while Mika sits on her lap. Quilla served the snacks and returned back to her original seat.

“I am gonna cut to the chase, Serena. I want you to dismiss Xaviel here as a slave,” Hoff said in a severe tone.

“What?”

Serena said bluntly while Xaviel panicked internally.

“There's no way I can do that, Dad !" said Serena.

"Hmm? And why is that," Hoff asked as one of his eyebrows went up.

"The reason I took him as a slave is because of Maru. He won't let him enter without identification," Serena explains while Mika chomps the biscuit her mother serves.

"Xaviel is not a bad guy. I can vouch for that. If I were to dismiss him, he would have nowhere to go." Serena turns her attention to Xaviel. Her facial expression said to Xaviel, "Don’t just stand there. Say something about your condition.”

“Serena is telling the truth. I apparently lost most of my memories. When I woke up, I wasn’t even wearing a shirt. Neither do I find anything related to my identity,” Xaviel explains.

“How come you know your name is Xaviel tho?” Hoff asked.

Knew you were gonna say that, Thought Xaviel.

“It’s kinda complicated. Sometimes words come and go inside my head. It gave me headaches sometimes. Like when you saw me sleeping in the alley street Serena,” said Xaviel.

“You mean after you caught The Flicher?” Serena asked.

“Yeah, I passed out from headache that time and-“

“Wait, Serena, repeat that!” Hoff orders in a high tone.

“Repeat what? ‘You mean after you caught The Flicher?’ one?” Serena asked.

Hoff’s eyes then widen while his jaw drops. His face was in awe the moment he heard The Flicher. “How in the world do you manage to accomplish that, my boy?” said Hoff. His hands reached to Xaviel’s and began to shake it happily.

“Many, many thanks! You have done us a great service,” Hoff said.

“Mr. Xaviel must be so strong to have caught The Flicher,” said Quilla with an amused tone.

“Yes! Mr. Pack so strong. He have six-pack,” said Mika.

“Wow, so you’re the sexy man every girl in the marketplace been talking about,” said Quilla.

“Ehehehe,” Xaviel laughs in response.

“Alright, let me make something clear,” Hoff retracts his hand from Xaviel’s and begins speaking seriously.

“What I meant by dismissing Xaviel. I want you to release him because I want to hire him as a worker here in this house."

“Why didn’t you say so? Thereby I Serena release thou Xaviel from my slave duty,” Serena claimed.

“Umm, what am I supposed to say?” Xaviel asked.

“You must say ‘I Xaviel hereby accept the terms and claim based on my own free will.’,” said Hoff.

“I Xaviel hereby accept the terms and claim based on my own free will,” Xaviel said.

“Congratulations! You are no longer a slave. Now, why don’t you work for me? Accommodation varies from a place to stay, three meals a day, and I’ll throw in pocket money for you,” Hoff offered.

The deal seemed too good to be true. There must be a catch, Xaviel Thought

“What kind of job are we talking about? Can you give the details?” Xaviel eyes stared directly at Hoff’s.

“It’s fieldwork. Watering, harvesting, and planting crops mainly and an optional extra job that I prefer to disclose,” Hoff explains.

“If it’s fieldwork, I need training. I may have a good physique, but I lack the knowledge. Would you add the accommodation of training?” Xaviel asked.

“Hmm, it's doable,” Hoff replied while caressing his chin.

“If so, then I’ll gladly accept the job,” Xaviel said as his hand reached out to Hoff’s hand, signaling a handshake to seal the deal.

“Glad to have you as my worker. I expect great things from you,” Hoff said as he shook Xaviel’s hand. He let go and said, “You start tomorrow. But before that, may we speak in private?”

“Alright,” Xaviel agreed.

“Please excuse us,” Hoff said as he retreated from the table they were in. He walked, guiding Xaviel in the direction of the backyard. They walked for a few minutes until they finally reached the backyard.

“I have a confession,” said Hoff while talking, facing the opposite direction of Xaviel.

Somehow, I sense a murderous intent, Thought Xaviel.

“The extra job I meant was actually the job I wanted you to complete,” Hoff said in a stagnant tone.

“But to accomplish that extra job, I need to test something,” Hoff suddenly took out a dagger.

I don’t like where this is going.

“What do you need to test?” Xaviel said as he collected some pebbles from the ground to his robe’s pocket.

“Your…conviction!” said Hoff turned to face Xaviel as he threw a knife towards Xaviel.

CLANG!

Suddenly the knife was diverted from its original direction and fell to the ground.

“What? “ Hoff asked as he saw Xaviel holding a pebble in one of his hands. “You threw the pebble from the ground to the knife’s hilt, so the motion is canceled. Allowing it to fall down. Very resourceful.” Hoff continued.

In reality, that was a mere coincidence.

   ↓ ↓ ↓ ↓ ↓ ↓ ↓ ↓ ↓

With gravity, the original pebbles that I threw upwards will make a rain of rocks. With that many pebbles, I am quite sure one of them would hit, but as a backup, I kept one of the pebbles in my left hand. Since I already threw the pebbles before he had thrown the knife, it’s predicted that he didn’t clearly see what I had done.

“I guess you didn’t need me to hold back, huh? How exciting !” Hoff said while he smirked. Then, his hand reached to one of his pockets and took out another knife.

This won’t be nice.