Have you ever wondered how people used to live their lives, how long ago was that? Hmm... maybe around the 70th century AD, in the Middle East, were they like the stories we've heard so far, living under the sun, traveling on camels, maybe so.
My name is azalea, I am an 18 year old boy with fairly long black hair, I also have sparkling red eyes like a ruby, my mother also have the same eyes as mine once. once? My father killed my mother his own wife just to take her eyes, and the eyes were given to the king.
The place where I live now is called hegra, a city in the Arab lands that has been ruled by the Roman Empire, and is led by King Malichus Vanchess, a king who rules over the Nabaths in the hegra kingdom. And this king also asked my father to kill my mother to get the eye. In exchange for making my father one of his generals.
The city is one of the centers of trade through which merchants often pass. The price is two coins sir, ah! My money bag is gone. In the crowd of people there was a man walking leisurely while holding a money bag, not bad... there are 20 silver coins here, Hmm... what are you buying? Yes, that man is none other than azalea.
Azalea lost his parents at the age of 13, since losing his parents he has been living in the suburbs with other children who also lost their parents. Azalea steals to buy food for the people in the suburbs.
After buying some food I decided to head back to my place in the suburbs. This should be enough for those kids!!!, from a distance I saw a crowd of people. Ah! Why is there a crowd here?
"It's someone from the kingdom, wants to say something!" the man beside me said.
"What did he say, that he had to come to the slums?" I replied, confused.
"Everyone be quiet- I will now read you a message from the kingdom," said the king's man.
From what that person said, the child of King Malichus ran away last night, which I heard she fought with her father after which she was locked up in a room and guarded by her father's subordinates. But this morning she was not found in her room. Her father hurriedly ordered his subordinates to look for his daughter! That's more or less what the message from the royal person said.
After the people left, night fell and I distributed the food I had bought to the children gathered in front of me. A stranger came to me asking for food.
"c-can I have some food..." she asked, stammering.
I, who was confused, still gave her a piece of bread. While staring at her I slightly noticed, hmm... a woman probably the same age as me. Ah! She was looking at me.
"What!" he replied with a cynical face.
"It's nothing, it's just that you seem strange here?" I replied with confusion.
"My name is r... bel, bel yes that's my name!"
The name bel sounded familiar. Then she continued her story, her parents were killed in the war after that because she had no place to live she walked without direction and finally arrived in this slum. After she finished his story because she had no place to stay I allowed her to stay at my place temporarily. She said she still wanted to continue her journey to her grandparents' place.
In the middle of the night, I, who was fast asleep, was awakened by a grumbling sound. The sound came from bel. It seemed like she was having a nightmare and even looked restless, after a while dhe seemed to have calmed down. I went back to sleep.
In the morning, unlike most days, Azalea woke up to the delicious smells coming from the kitchen.
"What is this scent..." he said as he looked towards the kitchen.
"from the kitchen! Is anyone cooking?"
Azalea, who was still confused, got out of bed and headed for the kitchen. The kitchen had not been used for a long time, even to the point of spiders making nests there. But in front of him now was a girl who was cooking.
"lalala... ah!" bel turned around in shock.
"s-sorry, I used the kitchen without permission!" she apologized while holding the food.
"Oh! No, I don't mind that," said azalea.
"You can cook apparently?" he said in awe.
"You want some? I made quite a lot!" bel ask.
Bel and azalea sat at the table eating the food that Bel had made. The meal looked so delicious that Azalea finished everything on the plate, leaving only a spoon on the plate. After eating, when I wanted to wash the dishes, Bel stopped me, saying that she would do it. I, who felt bad, tried to refuse.
"You made the food, there's no way I'm letting you wash the dishes too!" I said gently.
"You let me stay here, it's the least I can do to repay you!" she replied as she stopped me from picking up the dishes.
With this coercion azalea could only let it go. Before the sun was overhead, as usual azalea went to the trading center to steal for money. In the crowd of people azalea looked at a man who looked confused while holding something in his hand, seeing this azalea decided to steal from that person.
Azalea tried to approach the person, his hand ready to take the item in the person's hand. But unfortunately, the person walked away when someone else called out to him. Azalea, who was not willing to let the person go, decided to follow him.
"cih! A little more" with an annoyed face.
"I'll follow that guy!" with an evil laugh.
Inside an abandoned hut not far from the trading center, three men were gathered including the two who were followed by azaleas. If you look at the situation, it seems that the person holding the goods is a merchant who wants to sell his goods to the other two.
Outside behind the window, Azalea peered at them. She recognized the two people who were there, but she could not see the one person who was covered by the shadow.
"Ah! Damn I can't see that guy" he said with a low but irritated voice.
"but that voice, sounds familiar?"
Azalea, who was eavesdropping on their conversation, knew what the person she was following was carrying. It turned out that what the person was carrying was a scroll of paper used to summon demons. In this day and age, things like magic are commonplace.
"I have brought what you asked for" said the merchant as he showed the scroll.
Then the person on the side took the scroll to make sure. After being sure that the scroll was genuine, the merchant then asked for the agreed-upon payment.
"The scroll is real! Now where's the pay-"
The merchant hadn't finished speaking when his head was cut off by the person next to him. Judging from the sword used by that person. We know that the two people are soldiers from the kingdom, after killing the merchant. The person who had been silent in the shadow finally stood up and walked towards the merchant's corpse, but.
"He's dead, general!" said the soldier.
"Huh! What a general!" Azalea was a little shocked.
The general began to walk away from the shadows, as the sunlight coming from the perforated roof shone on the person. A familiar face appeared there.
"That!!! That general, my father!" azalea with a shocked face.
"Give it to me" said the general.
In front of the merchant's corpse, the two royal soldiers performed a ritual to summon a demon. Azalea who couldn't believe his eyes saw the figure of the father who killed his mother in front of him, feelings of anger, annoyance, hatred became one but Azalea was still thinking coldly. She didn't want to be rash in taking action.
The sun was about to set, and inside the hut the two people who had been summoning demons seemed to be unsuccessful despite performing many rituals. Azalea who seemed tired of waiting outside began to feel sleepy, her eyes seemed to want to close when her eyes were almost closed.
"Damn! It still didn't work" said the soldier.
"Is what the merchant is selling fake?" the soldier asked.
"No, the scroll is real!" said the general.
"Then why after everything we tried didn't work?" the soldier was confused.
After the argument, the azalea who had not fallen asleep due to their voices returned to look out the window. The two soldiers decided to leave the hut after failing for the umpteenth time. And they left the merchant's corpse with the scroll.
After they left, azalea decided to go in hoping that there were still treasures left on the merchant's corpse. However, he found nothing but a scroll lying beside him.
"This scroll! The scroll to summon demons" I said in shock.
"ah! it's getting late so I'd better go home" while looking up at the moon.
not getting anything azalea went from there. While trying to get out of there a piece of wood suddenly fell from above, fortunately azalea managed to avoid it but his finger was slightly injured.
"What bad luck today!" azalea sighed.
A drop of blood that fell from azalea's finger hit the scroll. Azalea who didn't care decided to leave there immediately, after a while the scroll was lit up, there was a sound from the scroll.
"Familiar blood, huhu!" the voice from the scroll said.
After that sound, flames emerged from the scroll, burning the shack and the merchant's corpse. In the slums, azalea who had almost reached his home, remembered that he had not bought food for the children there. Distraught, azalea decided to return home anyway.
"I'll apologize when I get there," azalea said thoughtfully.
Not far from azalea's house he saw many people already gathered there. Seeing the crowd, Azalea prepared to apologize for not being able to bring food. But when he got closer he saw many people eating delicious food.
"What! Where did this food come from?" asked azalea in surprise.
He then looked towards the kitchen and there was the same person who made him wake up in the morning because of the delicious scent. Yes! It was bel that was cooking for the hungry people.
"Bel! You made food for these people?" azalea with an amazed expression.
"Sure, who else could it be!" bel said arrogantly.
"But where do these ingredients come from? Asked azalea.
"I bought it!" bel replied.
"Buy? Where did you get the money?" azalea said, confused.
"Your money, of course!" she replied with a smile.
"WHAT!!! My money" Hearing this, Azalea was pensive.
After all these things passed, it was quiet at azalea's house. Bel and azalea decided to take a break. they both sat down while drinking water, azalea told the story of what he experienced today but without mentioning his father. hearing this story, Bel seemed to be in disbelief.
After telling the story they started to feel sleepy and decided to sleep, just like the night before, Azalea woke up because of the grumbling sound from bel. Azalea saw bel from afar and wondered why every night bel seemed to have nightmares. Ignoring this azalea decided to go back to sleep but.
"fufu!" a faint voice.
"What is it!" a slightly startled azalea.
"ah you're awake" came the voice again, but this time it was clearer.
"WHO IS IT!!!" azalea shouted.
"hmm- what's wrong" asked bel that woke up.
"See you soon Vanchess!" the mysterious voice said.
"No it's nothing!" azalea replied to bel.
I, who was still confused, told bel to continue sleeping, when bel had fallen asleep again I thought about the mysterious voice again, what else the last sentence he said. Who did he mean by Vanchess? Isn't Vanchess the name of a royal descendant.
Surrounded by these questions, Azalea could not fall asleep. he kept thinking about what had happened moments before. As the sun came up, the light coming into azalea's house woke bel.
"Good morning" bel said while yawning.
"Morninggg" azalea answered sleepily.
"What's wrong with you?" asked Bel.
"Sleep deprivation!" replied azalea.
continued the day as before. Bel did the cooking, azalea waited at the table, and once the food was ready they ate it. Here, Bel continued to watch azalea who still looked confused.
"What's wrong, azalea?" bel asked softly.
"Just a little too much thought!" replied azalea.
"If you have something to tell me, just say it" said Bel.
"sure!" said azalea with a smile.
Azalea decided not to tell bel what he had experienced. Azalea decided not to think too much about what he had experienced and continued doing what he could, going to the trading center to steal.
At the trading center, Azalea ran away while being chased by people after stealing from them. While running he passed by the royal troops who were talking.
"Thief! Should we catch him?" the royal troops asked.
"Let them mind their own business!" the royal troops replied.
"We also have an assignment from the king to find his child!" said the royal troops.
Conditions in the kingdom were not good. The king, who looked sick, was being treated by the doctors. The king asked the soldiers who were there, had they found his child? The soldier said that they had not found the king's child.
Hearing this, the king could only sigh, while thinking about his child condition. The king then ordered to continue looking for his child. In his head, the king recalled the day he fought with his child.
"Huhuk!" a coughing sound was accompanied by blood coming out of the king's mouth...