Bang! Bang!
A loud knock bashed on his room's thin door. Startled Lozo shot out of his bed franticly looking around.
'The bunny!' he thought.
He quickly accessed the room, looking for the possible reason of the rude bang.
Bang! Bang!
The knock came again. Only this time a voice followed. Deep and mostly in its teen.
"Hey newbie. Wake up." The voice called.
Huh? Lozo wondered looking at his room door rattle. Underneath it, through the space between the door and the floor, a shadow passed walking across the hall.
'At this time of the day?! Who could this be?' He wondered.
He looked through the door shutter leading into the garden. The sun was barely up, the earth's shadow still looming on the horizon. He had had a late night the previous day, right after the task with Karin, and was seriously not looking to wake up this early.
But that was no longer an option. That's because the deep voice wouldn't let him. With another set of bangs, it scared the drowsy pull in his eyes away.
Bang! Bang! "Get up. Mr Kisharu needs us."
Oh, come on! Was Lozo as he raised from his bed grouchily stomping to the door. He slid it open, peering into the hall for the source of the disturbance.
He eyes shifted left to right. On the right side of his door the sleep disrupter stood.
"Oh good. You are awake now. Clean up and get ready. Mr Kisharu summoned all of us."
He was a tall man with orange hair. His body, physique meant for the gods. Lozo couldn't see his chest but for sure it was impressive as the two python like thick and well-conditioned muscles that coiled for his collar bone to just above his posterior. He was draped in nothing but a bath towel, that hang loosely around his waist. He had another towel in hand that he used to wipe his face. A face that betrayed his age, presenting a mature one instead.
And finally, the boy, man – Lozo couldn't make up his mind – standing in the hall of the dorm was steaming.
"Who the hell are you?" Lozo asked, forgetting himself. Sleep deprivation is the major cause of morning grouchiness.
The figure shifted its head slightly looking back to Lozo. He glared with only one eye.
He turned revealing the final set of six – with eight not that far – packs and a rock-solid chest.
"Name's Kento. We got a problem?"
A stare lingered between the two with tension so thick that the morning haze faded fast with fog. Neither moved nor twitched. Just a silent measure of each one's tenacity.
"Go easy on him Kento." A new voice broke the silence. It was familiar.
They both shifted their eyes to the main dorm door and there she stood replying their looks with one of her own.
"I was only waking him up." Kento said resuming to wipe of the water dripping from his hair. "I don't think we have a problem do we…um?"
"It's Lozo." Lozo answered.
Kento scoffed. "What kind of a name is that?"
"Kento." Karin warned. "I said tone it down."
Kento sighed and turned back to Lozo. "Sorry… Just a rough morning. But you should hurry up and get ready." He said before turning and moving to his room. Room 7.
He opened the door and got in. 'What's his problem' Lozo wondered as he watched the door close.
"You should listen to him. Mr Kisharu called us to the Hearth Room. Don't be late." Karin said before walking out the door.
As she walked away Lozo noticed something amiss with the two. It was in their demeanor. The lack of energy in their steps as they each slumped out of the hall to their respective destinations and to how their eyes lingered on the floor board with zero wonder for what was around them.
Some was troubling them.
***
"Guess they already moved her."
"Yeah… guess so. Didn't find her in her room so that the probably likely explanation."
The hearth room was expansive and empty as usual. So much so that the slightest of creaks from the rusting door exaggeratingly announced one's arrival with a resounding reverberation.
This would then make anyone in the room turn to face whichever of the eight corridors the creak came from.
"Lozo, seems you finally decided to join us." Kisharu said welcoming Lozo as he came down the stairs.
"Got lost."
Karin shook her head to cliché excuse.
"Anyway, that isn't the reason I called the three of you here. It's something far more important." Kisharu began.
"But first introductions. Lozo Ken…"
"We already met." Kento interrupted looking to Lozo.
"Okay then. I'll get straight to it. I assume by now all of you understand how important Normals-Harmatia relationships are. They are the binding glue that holds up this kingdom. Meaning that for them to work a comfortable rapport between each of the factions needs to be maintained at all times."
"We get this part, hurry up to the next." Karin interrupted. Her mood was rather sour compared to their previous encounter.
"I'm doing this for those who might not know," Kisharu said looking at Lozo then back Karin. "In order to keep those bonds intact the fief organizes interaction activities. A place where both Normals and Vassals, Hamartia with a recognized family, can interact and reduce the tension between them. And this where you three come in."
"Karin, Kento," there was a slight hesitation before he continued." Meet your new teammate, Lozo. He is going to join you squad as the third vassal."
Tch!! A deep click sounded right after Kisharu finished. It was Kento. An angry Kento.
"You mean you're already replacing her. It hasn't even been a day and you want to bring this… this… Arrgh!"
"Kento…" Kisharu tried to calm Kento.
"So that's why huh? That why you wanted me to help him… You knew that she wasn't going to survive and you were already plotting to bring him in her place."
"Karin…"
"No!" Kento boomed.
"NO!" Karin demanded.
"Hell nah! He's taking Cilia's place!" They both shouted in unison before each leaving the Hearth room through different doors.
Lozo stood astound by the heart felt rejection. It hadn't been two minutes since he arrived and he could already gauge that his presence was far from welcomed. He watched each walked out of the room, tears at bay in Karin's eyes and Kento's rage pumping his veins to visibility all over his body. Yet Lozo didn't even know why.
"Is something wrong? Or do they not like me that much?"
Kisharu turned to Lozo. He heaved a calming breath out and ushered to Lozo to follow him.
"Come on. There is something I need to show you." He said leading a door out of the hearth room.
***
Two months ago, an unexplained devastation happened. It was silent to most but to those who heard it, they experienced a new scale of pain and agony. A pain neither of the first two circle of ascending could describe. Hence a term was created for it…
Kisharu and Lozo were strolling through the compact compound of the Harmatia sect of Himo village. This part was far gloomy than the hospital or hearth region. It was like a recovery center where vast sets of ailments came to heal and release their grasps on their victims' body. Broken bones, near death stabs, poisoning… you name it and you'd have probably found it in one of the white tents erect in the small patch of the Harmatia sect.
Also let it be known that of the many groaning and sulking in the patch, only two were Harmatia.
"Pain of heavenly ruling." Lozo repeated the term after Kisharu.
"Yes. Pain of Heavenly Ruling. This was the phenomena that caused the cries of Harmatia all over the Kingdom and probably the world. By the information we've gathered so far, the occurrence was mostly random until just a few weeks ago when something entirely different began. It caused different people of Harmatia lineage to drop to the ground wanting to rip their limbs off."
A flash rushed through Lozo's head. A flash of the night when he was face to face with the stitched molten blooded Demon… what was his name again?
"Hey…" Kisharu called snapping his fingers." Hey Lozo listen this is the most important part."
The two had arrived at a school. Or that's what it used to be.
Built of wood that was losing it deep brown color and fading to gray, the rectangular shaped school stood. At the front the school a protrusion compartment housing a bell towered at the top of the roof. There was no rope, signaling its long-forgotten use. Inside there were classrooms on one side of the halls. There were scribbles of explosion and swirling curves that were meant to depict wind.
And on the other side of the hall, the middle of the school, was a large open space.
"At first the occurrence was brushed aside as momentary. The higher ups thought that it wouldn't persist and would fade away like many other cases have. Then it continued for another week or so. This time the randomness reducing to specific people. Then the higher ups took notice hypothesizing that it was an attack from an enemy nation but then it wasn't. The higher ups kept claim of it not being an issue."
Kisharu walked into the school, heading straight to the central open space filled with white sand and small smooth pebbles.
"But their views changed drastically when the occurrence started targeting high rank Harmatia… The saints."