The sun shone brightly, a gentle breeze blew, birds sang, and a young man in a blue cloak-coat and white mask roamed through the forest.
'Where are you, Viator?'
This was Akito's thought, for even with the mask, he couldn't sense Viator's presence in the forest. Various thoughts, not very pleasant ones, began to creep into his mind. Subconsciously, Akito was already imagining the worst, but gathering himself and taking a breath, Akito began to calm down.
"No, Viator is fine, such a strong person couldn't lose, maybe he's just somewhere else... Yes, better leave this place before I overthink it..."
Akito didn't want to return to the city; he wanted to clear his head. Without realizing it, Akito came to a field where he had seemingly recently been with Atticus.
Falling onto the soft, golden-green grass, Akito threw his hands behind his head. His breathing became deeper and slower. The sun pleasantly warmed everything around him. Akito didn't even realize his eyes had closed, but he didn't fight it. Gradually, his mind became clouded, and eventually, he fell asleep.
It happened suddenly. He didn't even understand how, but Atticus was shaking him, not hard, but enough to wake him. He sighed heavily and let go of Akito's shoulders.
"Oh, I see you're awake. You know, it's already evening, and you hadn't come back. I thought I'd have to call Sophia to look for you too."
But all this information passed through his ears. In Akito's head, fragments of a strange, long dream whirled.
Some dream fragments appeared before his eyes. He understood nothing, but Akito clearly remembered the last fragment: the silhouette of a white-haired man, dressed in a mantle, with something dark surrounding him...
"He didn't have emerald eyes!"
Akito suddenly shouted, making Atticus flinch back from him. They stared at each other with wide eyes. Atticus broke the silence.
"Holy priests! Don't shout, you almost scared me to death."
"Sorry, I didn't mean to... It's just... Never mind, just a silly dream."
"Did you really fall asleep in the field? Well, yes, why?"
"Nothing, let's go to the city now, you know it's not easy to find you everywhere."
"Atticus, I've never seen you spend time with your family... Or anything like that. Usually, you're either working or doing something else."
Atticus, who had already started walking towards the city, stopped sharply upon hearing this and turned towards Akito. His jaws were tightly clenched, but he finally opened his mouth.
"I don't have a family. I was abandoned in an orphanage when I was very small, so I don't even know how to answer you. Hearing that question, I feel a darkness, not an oppressive one, but an unknown darkness of misunderstanding."
"I'm sorry... I didn't think it was like that..."
"Forget it, sometimes it's easier to forget something and not think about it. This is one of those times. Let's go to the city before night begins."
"Of course, it's better not to anger Sophia, because when she's angry, it's best to hide, right?"
Atticus straightened his shoulders and sighed softly, smiling.
"Exactly, she's a real demon when she's angry, but actually, she's great if you don't provoke her."
"I'm afraid to even imagine."
Akito said jokingly. Soon they were in the city and heading to the tavern. There were no people at their destination, only Sophia. She was sitting at the counter, secretly sipping wine. Atticus approached her.
"Caught you, thief, right in the act."
Sophia jumped in surprise, looked at Atticus and Akito, smiled, and put a finger to her lips.
"I own this tavern now, and it just happened to be here by chance. It would be a sin not to try it."
"Just don't mess things up here, it's my day off."
"Atticus... a neat freak like you will clean everything up anyway."
While Atticus and Sophia were talking, Akito remembered something.
'I left my mask in the field...'
"Friends! I urgently need to go to the field, I forgot something there."
The two looked at Akito and said in unison.
"Huh?"
"My mask, I forgot it there!"
Atticus looked at Akito strangely, and Sophia started laughing loudly. She pointed her finger at Akito's belt.
"Then what's this?"
Akito's eyes followed Sophia's finger. Indeed, his mask was on his belt.
'How? I distinctly remember taking it off and putting it next to me...'
Sophia continued laughing.
Atticus patted Akito on the shoulder as if in support and went to Sophia.
"Pour me a glass of wine then, since you say it's a sin not to taste it."
Atticus's eyes were on the wine; it was dark red. He raised the glass but didn't take a sip. Instead, he brought the glass closer to his nose.
He caught a pleasant scent of grapes with notes of something seemingly spicy.
"It should be good. Akito, want to try it?"
"Umm... No, I don't want to. My head already hurts, I don't think alcohol will help."
Akito quickly refused and went to his room. Something wasn't adding up in his head.
'The mask definitely wasn't on me, I'm sure of it...'
Lost in thought, Akito couldn't fall asleep. There were two reasons for this: first, something was disturbing his soul, and second, drunk Atticus and Sophia were singing incomprehensible songs and seemed to have knocked something over and broken it. His head was splitting, inexplicably. It seemed this pain would never go away, but a strange fatigue that crept up unexpectedly took its toll.
Akito's eyes slowly opened. He caught the sunlight on his face through the window. He couldn't remember how he woke up, but now he was standing opposite the window in the tavern, and behind him were sleeping Atticus and Sophia. Both of them were on the floor, and the table next to them was overturned.
'What's going on?.. Wait... I'm supposed to meet Viator today!'
At that moment, his mind became clear. Rushing out of the tavern, he ran through the gates. It was still early; many were sleeping, stray cats were basking in the sun, and Akito seemed to have gotten a strange surge of energy, as if he had put on a mask, but it was dangling somewhere on his belt.
One of the guards yawned softly; he was tall. The other, a redhead and short, gently nudged his comrade.
"This is our first day guarding the gates, come on, pull yourself together, no time to rela-"
Suddenly, like a hurricane, Akito swept past them. The guards stared after him with wide eyes.
"Even horses don't run that fast. Wait, who is he? Hold on!"
But it was too late; the young man in the blue cloak-coat was hidden by the dark and dense forests.
Akito had never felt so light, but now, everything changed. His speed became normal, so without much thought, Akito pulled on his mask and wore it. And immediately as the mask touched his face, he felt something like a dark purple light in the darkness. Like an insect, he went after the light. Akito felt it was Viator.
Atticus woke up first, went to drink some water, sat at the counter for a while to rest, and then looked at Sophia.
"Looks like we overdid it. Get up, come on, we need to clean all this up."
He began gently shaking Sophia, opened her eyes slowly.
"Oh, is it morning already? Or what time is it?"
Meanwhile, Akito was already approaching Viator, who was sitting by a small lake, observing something.
"Viator! I'm here! I have a request for you!"