Michael dropped to his hands and knees, heaving. His ten-year-old body shivered after he emptied the contents of his stomach beside the lifeless body of the butcher.
The smell of decay and bile filled his nostrils, threatening to overcome him.
Filled with shock, the mental barrier protecting his inner palace shook slightly, showing signs of weakness. A moment later, he felt a searing pain assault him once more, snapping him out of his state.
Struggling to his feet, Michael lunged for the door and escaped the butcher's store, gasping for breath. He sucked in the fresh air, savoring it for a moment before trying to calm himself.
He was in shock, of this, he had no doubt.
This was the first time he'd seen a dead body up close, moreover it was someone that he knew. While it wasn't someone he was close with like his mother, the emotions he felt seeing the corpse was overwhelming.
But the more his mental state was rattled, the more pain Michael felt in his mind.
My inner palace!
He looked inward, seeing smoke rising from his mental barrier as it shook wildly. Whatever had attacked him earlier seemed to be trying to break in once more and reach his soul.
Michael's face turned serious as he sat down and entered the lotus position.
Trying to focus, the young boy threw all distracting thoughts out of his mind and worked on reinforcing his mental barrier. Having already experienced the excruciating pain of his soul being corrupted, Michael was not about to let it happen again.
He then proceeded to fortify his defenses, weathering the storm brought on by the unknown assailant.
During this time, he noticed something. Whatever was attacking him didn't seem to have a will of its own, seemingly being driven by instinct alone.
It suddenly made sense why he had been attacked. The shock he experienced earlier upon seeing the corpse had caused his mental defenses to falter, creating an opening for the attacker.
Yet upon properly defending for a while, the attacks slowly subsided, eventually stopping altogether.
Michael's eyes flashed open and he let out a sigh of relief. By now his state of mind had been calmed and he was no longer in a state of shock.
Slowly getting to his feet, he inspected himself. After confirming that he hadn't sustained any injuries, he finally felt relieved enough to move on.
I need to leave this place as soon as I get enough supplies, he thought, looking around the street.
He returned to the right side of the road and began to inspect the stalls that were covered. The first one was filled with leather work—knapsacks, gloves and boots.
All of the stock was neatly arranged, as if the owner had intended to open the stall as normal this morning.
What? Did the owner forget to take his stock?
But such a thing didn't make sense. The leather work was good quality with some of the items priced at a few gold pieces.
Michael had a bad feeling.
He moved onto the next stall, uncovering it. Like he suspected, it was full of wares, just like the produce and leather work.
It doesn't make sense… If the townsfolk evacuated, wouldn't they have taken at least some of their belongings?
One after another, Michael opened up the remaining stalls and sure enough, they were all filled with stock aside from the jeweler who would probably take their stock back to their residence at the end of the day.
All of this was unlikely to be a coincidence.
Either they had no time to collect their belongings before leaving… or they didn't get a chance to leave at all, Michael thought bitterly, his thoughts moving to the butcher he'd found dead in his store.
The mysterious thing that had attacked him, it was entirely possible that the townsfolk had fallen victim to it. After all, if it struck while they were asleep when one's defenses were at the lowest, it would be hard to resist.
Part of him wanted to check if there were any survivors, but the other half didn't want to see even more dead bodies.
Some might call it selfish, but he was only a ten-year-old boy, despite how mature and intelligent he might seem on the outside. In reality, all he wanted to do was get as far away from Velmara City as possible.
So Michael did just that.
Since the wares had been abandoned either through necessity or tragedy.
First, he went over to the leather workers stall and closed his eyes, saying a few words of respect for the man who owned it. He didn't have any money or belongings to trade, but he still wanted to be respectful.
Michael grabbed a pair of boots that was similar to his size, a leather pouch and a knapsack to store the supplies he was about to take. He had no thought of taking more than he needed, especially since he wasn't sure how far the next city was on foot.
After getting his leather supplies, Michael visited each one of the other stalls and repeated his actions, thanking the owners for their help before stocking up.
By the time he reached the end of the street, he had enough supplies to last him for the next week or so on the road.
Taking a final glance at the markets, Michael walked towards the northern part of the city and stopped at the entrance. His eyes moved to the east, falling upon the City Lord's mansion, his old home.
Aside from the memories of his mother, he didn't care for the cold and empty place.
His father and the servants treated him coldly when not in the presence of Alice. A barely hidden disdain evident beneath their eyes.
Michael's gaze lingered for few moments before he set off, not turning back.
He didn't know what laid ahead, but one thing was for certain. Michael would dedicate his new life to finding the one's who did this to his mother and Velmara City.
But first, I need to become stronger.