Woah, the castle looked larger up front. That was what Hyōen thought as he stood at the entrance of the castle in Orchidia, having another request on his hand. Back at the guild hall, there was this knight of a family known as Muramasa who requested a mage, specifically, to take care and distract a very specific senile. Hearing of it first, it kind of annoyed the fire mage to keep away a respectful elder, but he didn’t know of this person’s actions. It turned into a discussion with the knight named Jelies who explained that this specific, senile elder was what people called a village-idiot. He would simply be a plague to everyone, and especially at the castle’s activities today, so if Hyōen could keep him away, then he would be rewarded.

The mage accepted the challenge slash request and arrived at the entrance to wait for the crazy person’s arrival. Coda was drying her wings in the strong gust that travelled across the streets of Orchidia in the middle of the day, while Hyōen wished for everything in the world to eat another crepe. After last time, his soul lunged for it every single day; it was a heavenly snack. “Perhaps I should ask him if he wants to eat crepe too, Coda…” he suggested to the middle-sized bird as it looked back at him, shrieking. Hyōen’s hands were freezing, but as he saw a wheelchair approach him, he straightened up and thought: W-What now? He showed up just in time for the activities… I should ask now! Hyōen quickly shook the old, surprised man’s hand and greeted: “H-Hello, I’m Hyōen! This is my friend, Coda!” He sounded socially awkward at that point, pointing a finger to show Coda, “By the way, are you hungry? We should take a visit to the crepe shop, they sell some priceless snacks..!” Without further explanation, he grabbed the man’s hand and pulled him with his wheelchair along the road. “W-Woah, what kind of guard dog are you, my friend..?!” the old man asked. Being called a guard dog wasn’t favoured at all for the young fire mage, but if he could just distract the male long enough for the event to finish, then he would’ve finished his job. Now that he thought about it, what was with all these crazy guys out there and Hyōen? Two jobs… actually, three jobs have been with influence by a head-damaged male who thought that he was a detective, something that truly disappointed Hyōen as he found out the truth. This guy wasn’t quite that different… perhaps it was on purpose? Did people know of Hyōen’s skills in handling mentally sick people?

“You see that shop over there?” the fire guy asked to the smaller elder, “There are the crepes! God’s answer to people’s prayers for a nice meal!” His eyes shined ridiculously as he approached the shop, while the old man spoke: “Ohohoho! There’s the young child from yesterday! Hello, hello, brat; is the pulling working?”

WC: 502/1000

Hyōen didn’t understand what the old man meant, but he was too busy, anyway. The crepes were waiting to sink into Hyōen’s throat and into his stomach, releasing the scent and taste of happiness and glory. He bought an entire plate of crepes at the spot, not really surprising the merchant. “Ahahaha! I knew that you’d try and buy so many again!” the seller laughed. Hyōen couldn’t but smile proudly as he devoured the snacks, handing one to the old man as well. “Oho? Can the mischievous male have one as well?” he replied while accepting Hyōen’s offer, “Ahh… I haven’t tasted anything like this since my wife’s meals…” He suddenly looked at the ground, moaning over something. Coda looked at the saddened man, before pecking Hyōen’s attention towards it. “U-Uhm…” The fire boy was genuinely surprised by the sudden turn of spirit, “… What’s with your wife?” With a long sigh, the old man said: “… She passed away a long time ago.” With that said, Hyōen could understand him much more. People who could relate stories with each other had to understand each other more. He suffered from a loss of family as well, and so did Hyōen…

“W-Well, shall we go home? I’ve gone tired,” Leis suggested. Hyōen was surprised that he already wanted to go home, but that meant that his job could be done now. In that case, he pulled the wheelchair across the streets and approached the location. “… You shouldn’t feel sad all the time, sir,” the fire mage spoke, “… I-I mean, she must’ve been a wonderful wife, right?” “Oh, yes! Hahahahahahahahha…” The old man began laughing what seemed to be endlessly, until stopping all of a sudden. It creeped out Hyōen a little as he continued. “… She was wonderful,” the old man spoke again. With that said, Hyōen began smiling a little as they finally stood before the large home. To think that a village-idiot like him lived here was splendid, amazing. “My keys are in the lock, you just got to open it,” Leis explained, which showed off another weird thing about him. Why would he leave his keys in the lock? It was the lock that pointed outside, as in people could open and lock the door from the outside. Hyōen scratched his neck a little and approached the door, opened it, then pulled the man inside. The living room was large as well, obviously, so Hyōen finally said goodbye to the male. The senile Leis thanked the boy for a nice stroll and closed the door, but the fire boy didn’t hear any lock close. It worried him a little, so as a last action, he locked the door from where he stood… with the key. Then, he threw the key through the cat door beneath and left. He’d finished his job, and whilst finding the man very, very weird and worthy of the village-idiot title, he felt compassion too. People weren’t  that different from each other when it came to loss, after all…

507 = 1009/1000