With the advent of the otherworldly beings known as the Seraphim and Demons, there had been disorder all over Fiore. Crocus was no different when the strife reached the capital. Thankfully at this point, things had quieted down a bit, but the order was still not fully restored. Many were left without homes, families left without jobs, and children left without parents. Nero gazed upon a small village near the outskirts of Crocus left razed to the ground by what was allegedly bandits. Even now the smoke still drifted through the sky, signaling the end of a once peaceful era for the people of Fiore. A light sigh escaped his lips as he looked around for his client, the self-titled chief of this village who desperately was seeking aid.

It wasn't long before he found him, a man named Feros Kilian who'd assumed the role of a leader in a time where most people were still filled with desperation and sorrow. He had a bright smile on his face as he was busy working on building a house alongside some of the villagers who resided here or most likely moved after the fact. They seemed quite invested in their job at the moment and Nero couldn't find a moment to cut in between them shouting back and forth to one another to try and speed up the process. Instead, he chose to wait patiently while keeping an eye on what they were doing, hoping to learn a thing or two from them before he was given the details of the request.

Thankfully it wasn't long before they took a break and the man named Feros noticed him standing to the side watching them intently. With a light wave, he called him over, already having an idea as to who he was. "Pleasure to meet ya kid. Thanks for coming all this way to the sticks!" he said with a chuckle as he offered Nero a drink from a canteen he pulled from a bag.

"It was my pleasure..But if you don't mind me asking what do you need me for exactly?" Nero responded in kind, albeit slightly confused on what he was there for since the quest itself seemed pretty vague. Thankfully Feros was quick to inform him that it was actually intentional. There were a lot of tasks that needed to be done throughout the village over the next few days and he had posted up various requests for mages and adventurers alike to come and help restore the village. Thankfully they had been pretty wealthy and their stockpile of funds was well secured, so restoration wasn't much of an issue. The problem was lack of manpower. From what Nero was told Feros had already received word that two more people had been hired and should be arriving pretty soon.

In the meantime, he asked that Nero assist him with finishing up the house since he already saw his interest in their work. Nero was happy to help and borrowed a few tools from one of the other villagers and got to work on laying bricks for the foundation. The work itself was pretty intensive despite how easy it looked, there were many steps involved. He had to lay each brick one by one with a cement mixture layered in between each brick to keep them bound tightly together, from there he had to smooth out any parts of the bricks that seemed to overflow and create a smooth base. It was alright for him to leave a bit here and there thankfully since they intended to apply more cement on the floor once the bricks had dried.

However, that would take a while for them considering how tedious it actually was. The house they were making was in fact quite large, made with a few families in mind. Nero assumed they'd eventually be apartments allowing multiple families to live in the same building. It was actually quite smart, and Nero could see why Feros and the rest were still quite cheerful despite the circumstances. The village had originally been quite packed and unorganized with the original plans due to expansion over long periods of time. Now that things had essentially been reset to zero Feros and the rest could fully optimize the village and help it grow into a town in the future.

Whether or not that goal could be achieved was entirely up to them, but from what Nero could see they were kind people and he truly wished them the best. They were happy to share food and drink with him as he rested on a few logs nearby with them. They talked and laughed about a few things and got quite familiar with each other, making the job quite enjoyable. There was still a lot to do however and Nero fully intended to dedicate himself to it, leaping up off the log with renewed energy and a steeled resolve to do the best he could possibly do.

With the first coat of the cement finally done drying they could lay a solid foundation over it and slowly smooth it out until it was flat. The cement slowly oozed out of the machine they used to mix it, but it spread pretty well thanks to an Earth mage that was there to assist them. The hard part was working backward from the slow-moving cement while they did their best to maintain a level base. It seemed like things were going quite well though, and with some help from a wind mage, they were able to properly check the area they had poured it into without having to step on the cement itself.

It was at this point that Nero stopped for a moment, curious as to who it was that would be assisting the village alongside him and wondering whether or not they would be doing a different job from him or possibly working on another place. Either way, he hoped they'd be decent people, he didn't anything to happen to the villagers who'd treated him so well thus far and he was prepared to protect them if things turned south fast.

1045 | 2000

Another day, another task Shichiro must find himself looking for something to do to kill time. Hands firmly tucked into his pocket like he usual does, he walked through the streets of crocus for something to do. At first, he had been caught up in looking for work in Crocus alone when there was plenty of settlements and villages on the outskirts that he could visit for work as well. After all, a crisis had lifted that involved Seraphims and Demons but frankly, Shichiro knew nothing about that as he was off elsewhere in some small, forgotten part of Fiore. In a way, he was a bit frustrated he missed out on all of the fun and would have really loved to fight a supernatural being or two. Well, supernatural as in uncommon for the most part. He's already seen his fair share of werewolves and vampires so he didn't even consider them supernatural anymore. He's met a nephilim but so far, she was the only one of her kind so maybe one day, he'd ask her for a spar. Search through the town of Crocus, everything seemed relatively find and normal. Kids running around carefree and playing in the roads, civilians walking around chattering to themselves and others about arbitrary topics. and even Rune Knights patrolling the streets every now and again. Its strange that he only sees Rune Knights when they aren't needed until a crisis or somebody committing a felony turns up then they're no where in sight.  

Well, all seemed normal inside of Crocus so he decided he would head to restaurant and order something to eat. Waiting to be seated, Shichiro looked around to see if he could find a menu before hand in order to find something he'd like before he was seated. To no avail, he'd have to wait until he got to the bar where they'd hand have a menu hanging over the counter. Looking at the menu, he figured he'd go for something small and light so he didn't feel strange when he took a long walk out of the city. When he scrolled through the menu with his eyes, he finally found something that caught his interest called seafood kababs. It had chunks of salmon, shrimp, lobster and crab meat. For an extra fee, he could have gotten bits of steak too. He had a pretty strong craving for steak right now but he still wanted the seafood more by just a small margin. Eventually, he called the waiter over in over to place his order of what he wanted, to which the waiter obliged by instructing his chef to make the dish. After what felt like fifteen minutes of waiting, Shichiro had received two skewers with the assorted seafood with pieces of steak on it, cooked and seasoned to perfection. Even while it was in the process of being cooked, he could feel this dish alongside other entree that belonged to other patrons, regardless if they were cooked or in the process of.

Picking up a seafood skewer, he began to take small nibbles of his food to taste anything strong or a powerful unsavory burst of flavor but alas, nothing before he started to wolf down the contents on the stick. It only took him a minute or so finish the first skewer of food before he decided to move onto the second one. Finishing that within another minute, Shichiro was pretty satisfied all things considered. He decided to order some strawberry lemonade as in recent days, milk only seems to upset his stomach. Afterwards, Shichiro paid his tab and left the diner in order to go to the outskirts of town to find some work to do. He had no luck inside the city but outside, was a mess. Strolling along the roads, he came across a peculiar village to where it seems they were hard at work rebuilding a town from the chaos that had ensue previously. he wasn't sure how much time had passed since their catastrophe but he knew it would take a long time before they were back up to speed. Figuring he could use something to do anyway, he decided to waltz into the town under repairs and look around. At first, he thought about just passing by but eventually, he was motioned over by a man he had never seen before. Making a strange face, Shichiro reluctantly walked over to the man to see what he wanted. In all hoensty, he knew what he wanted just from the looks of him and he seemed pretty wealthy enough but Shichiro was just trying to keep up appearances. 

The man introduced himself as 'Feros Kilian' and he was looking for all able bodied adventures and mages alike in order to help rebuild his rundown town. It was fairly obvious what transpired here but who caused it was irrelevant. He just knew he had to pick up the slack and attempt to work hard at whatever task he was given.  Once the man offered him to help and a reward, Shichiro agreed immediately before the man smiled, patting him on the back. Shichiro's eye twitched a little but regardless this man was paying for him to sleep in a bed tonight so he let it pass without saying anything. He was instructed to go and assist the other workers in whatever endeavors they were struggling or partaking in. Looking around for something he might be able to assist with, Shichiro spotted somebody he was acquainted with. He didn't recognize him at first but now he knew for sure it was Nero that he had spotted. Well, it seems like he couldn't get away from him so he might as well just embrace it. Walking over towards Nero, he figured he might as well assist him in whatever he's doing before he went off around the town to help others in need. He didn't say a word of greeting, just stood there, watched and waiting for something to assist with, hands in pockets and all.

W.C: 1010

“ How long has it been? I hardly recognize you. “
Ylva couldn’t believe what she was seeing, she rubbed her eyes thinking maybe this couldn’t be real. She felt tears well up in her eyes, the stinging of the salty water making even more tears. Her cheeks quickly became stained with heavy salty droplets. Her eyes had to be under a spell and something in her fought to agree with what her eyes were seeing and what her heart was feeling. She couldn’t even speak as her words got caught in her throat. She wanted to ask if this was in fact real but nothing came out but the sounds of sobbing and hiccups. With all that had been happening to her, all the things she heard what happened to her family, all she could do was drop to her knees and cry.  Her body shook violently as she cried on the ground. She didn’t want to see them now after all this time. In her mind, they were all dead and she had to move on knowing that. It was so hard and Ylva thought she could never get over that but she did and she was so much stronger for it.

“ Oh no. We didn’t mean to make you cry, we are all here. We are all finally together again. Why aren’t you happy? “
She recognized that voice as it belonged to her eldest sister. A voice filled with love and brimming with confidence. She was the one that would protect them when mother and father fought or when the father spoke of marrying one of them off. She was a better mother than their own mom sometimes. The voice sent a chill down Ylva’s spine and then quickly sent a warmth spilling from her chest causing her to cry even more. She didn’t dare look up from the ground. She couldn’t even see all that well with how many tears she was shedding. This was like a nightmare and a dream all rolled into one and no matter how much she wanted to wake up from it she could not. No one who has been missing for as long as they had would just show up like this. Even if they all did find each other, Ylva had changed so drastically that is nigh impossible for any of her family members to find her if they wanted too.  Her body shook as she held herself, waiting for what she was sure was a ghost to just go away.

“You aren’t real..This is not real.. Please don’t do this... Just leave me alone. “
Her voice trembled, cracked, and wavered. She had to force the words out to the people she loved the most. Before she couldn’t even move but now it was taking everything inside of her not to run into the arms of her sisters and mother. Ylva didn’t even know where she was, she couldn’t even take in space she was in when she saw her family she could only focus on them. The space around her seemed to melt away into pools of just dull color.
“ WHY DO YOU TURN US AWAY? WE’VE BEEN LOOKING FOR YOU FOR A LONG TIME! “
The words hit her like a brick. She couldn’t believe what was happening to her were they really alive or was this really just some trick? Maybe they were trying to communicate with her but she had grown...Cynical over the time she had been away from her family.  The words came at her again but they were so much more distorted. This shook her so badly that when she looked up to address it her eyes opened not to her family but to a ceiling….

Ylva blinked at the ceiling, her hand running across her cheeks as she wiped tears from them. Her pillow felt wet from her crying and she felt more exhausted waking up than she did when she remembered falling asleep. Slipping out of the bed that she rented at a nicer inn in town, the emotionally defeated blond dragged herself to the showers. She needed to clean herself and hopefully scrub that dream from her mind while she was at it. Quickly she began her day, stepping into a hot shower and cleaning herself with a rose-scented soap. She let her mind wander to a more quiet place. The shower providing a helpful escape from the nightmare she had to endure. Once she was done cleaning herself she got out of the shower, pinned her long golden locks up into a bun, and threw on a simple outfit. The outfit she had placed on herself was a dark green shirt, a pair of black pants, and her black boots. Ylva being all cleaned and dressed grabbed her cloak and spear before heading out of the room and grabbing some food. She needed to take up some work in order to continue to build her reputation and to get some jewels in her pocket.

With the mess that came with certain races a lot of poorer villages needed help. Ylva looked through the mission boards to see if she could help those places specifically and soon she found herself heading towards a village just outside of crocus . Stuffing her face with a piece of fruit Ylva walked down towards the village. It seemed to be in shambles and she was looking for the village chief, someone she quickly found along with two other familiar faces. Before she got to the two familiar faces she spoke with the chief who needed help with multiple things. Ylva’s skills would allow her to be useful and soon she was ordered to go to the medical huts and help with the healing of the many injured people there. With her orders given she would quickly walk over to Shichiro, greeting him before offering if he wanted to help her with her task. He looked like he wasn’t doing anything so she might as well drag him along with her. If he took her offer then she would lead the way to the medical huts, where there were many people in dire need of medical attention.

1031

Nero was quick to notice Ylva and Shichiro together while he was busy working on the house. He wasn't entirely sure if Ylva had noticed him though, he didn't exactly expect her to remember him considering how they'd only been on a mission once together. Overall though whether she did or didn't wasn't much of an issue for him. He just considered her another passerby as far as acquaintances were concerned. It looked like she was concerned for the people who'd been previously injured at the village so he didn't fault her for putting them first. With a slight shrug, he went back to work, focusing now on the beams that would be put into place in premade areas that would act as the supports for the weight of the building. Slowly he adjusted them one by one with the help of the villagers, placing beams throughout the cement and then reapplying more into the spaces left over to solidify their position. Slowly they infused magic into it to speed up the process, but just slow enough to not cause the cement to crack from the pressure. When it was done the new support beams were practically as stable as the ones in his guild. They layered bricks around the beams afterward until they were over six feet high, matching the top of the beams. Between them all, they were laced with a mixture to keep them as solid as the beams.

Things where coming along together nicely as time went by. With the foundation done and the support beams up they began to work on creating the second floor, following most of the same process from before. They created a simple staircase that would lead up to it out of wood, driving long nails into the cement with pure strength alone to support it and then covering the bottom part in more cement. Nero could only chuckle at the sight of this apartment building that looked more like a bomb shelter to him at this point. To be fair though it would most likely serve as something of the sort considering what these people had gone through. The more stable a house was the easier they could regain their confidence in the village and the safer they'd feel. He looked forward to seeing their smiling faces once he was done and helped the villagers line up the staircase with the second floor by lightly jumping up. He kicked off of one of the beams and somersaulted onto the floor area they'd created to serve as the opening for the second-floor staircase.

The villagers clapped in delight, like seeing a trapeze artist swing from one rung to another in a deft defining feat. For Nero, though this was something simple, but he accepted their praise nonetheless. With light steps he positioned himself to receive the top of the staircase that they're prebuilt and quickly fastened it to the bracers they'd created. It all seemed to lock into place just fine, but they still ran a few tests before they felt it was safe to walk up it and begin working on the second floor. With that said and done though they were free to begin creating the walls for the first floor and begin closing off the place. The Earth mages from earlier assisted the wind mages in pushing large premade brick walls that had been assembled for just this occasion. The Earth mages ensured that the brick maintained their shape after they came off the ground, making sure to not let it bend and snap in half as it rose. The wind mages make the brick walls lighter, and levitated them so that they could be easily dropped in place to the holes made in the previous cement foundation. It was an impressive display of skill in all honesty and Nero wished he could participate, but sadly he was lacking the magic to do so. Instead he acted a foreman of sort and helped by leading them in the right direction, nimbly jumping from place to place so that the mages didn't have to spend too much time on positioning.

Thanks to his speedy movement they were able to save more magic than they expected and could use it for some of the other projects they had in mind. They were surprised after some calculation, thinking that they could honestly finish the entire project by today if they kept the pace up. Nero was happy to hear it, not wanting to leave a job unfinished if he could help it and went straight back to work once the walls were in place. They locked everything in one brick at a time to ensure maximum stability and using earth magic slid metal rods through all the bricks to enforce them further. With that done they quickly went onto doing the same for the second floor, having the walls up faster than the first them they'd done it since they'd grown more used to teamwork at this point. Without delay, they could go straight to the wood flooring and the rooftop. Nero chose to opt for the roofing considering his background as a Rogue, explaining how he was less likely to fall and could move around faster with his nimble feet. This freed up the wind mage for more things since they acted as a cushion for anyone that might lose their footing. Thankfully though there were no incidents and the roof was successfully completed by the time the sun started to set. The rest of the crew finished off the flooring and other details while he was working and by the end of it all, they'd invited him for a feast as part of an appreciation for a successful job. Nero smiled kindly and accepted the offer, joining them for a few drinks and food before seeing them off early in the morning to return to the mission board and see who else was in need of help.

Briefly standing there, Shichiro pondered on what he'd like to do next. He wasn't sure if the people here needed any additional help since it seems like the were on top of things altogether. Without uttering another word, Shichiro decided he would leave it up to them before going into a different direction. However, before he could move from his destination. A new person had shown up to aid in the restoration of the village, once again, it was Ylva. Seems like he was running into her a lot nowadays but that wouldn't be strange in the least. The last time the two of them were together, they did make plans to go to Crocus to attend the ball. Once that was over, Shichiro figured he'd go back to his wandering ways but alas, he had some business to finish up here. So instead, he decided to kill time, 'helping' the common folk of Crocus, if you could call them that. So far, he's run into pompous royals and nobles too rich for their own good to care about anything going on in the city other than themselves and status. Still, it felt nice to help out on menial tasks every now and again until his own line of work picks up.

He decided he would use this time to go along with Ylva in assisting with the healing of the villagers. He still wasn't sure why he woke up one day with the power to heal but, he did. He just had a surge of magical energy that could heal minor wounds and diseases that afflict people. He figured he'd get some use out of it. Unfortunately, he was no expert and he thought this was a good opportunity to use his powers on people and test the limits of his healing. So he decided to follow Ylva to wherever he was being taken in order to help out. After arriving to the destination which seems to be a shabby looking medical hut, he peered in to look at all the injured from accidents of rebuilding or minor scuffles before panning over to people who were sick and were probably contagious. He didn't really want to get himself sick so he figured he'd only assist in healing the ones with that had accidents from combat or construction related incidents. Walking over to a select few people, he asked them if there was any specific one by one if there was an individual part of their bodies they felt the most pain in. 

The first patient responded he had a severe injury in his finger that he had accidentally smashed his finger with a hammer. Taking a look at it, Shichiro figure this was an opportune moment to start testing his healing capabilities. Lifting his left hand, a faint brown and red glow of mana swelled into the palm of his hand before placing it over the patient's injured finger. At first, the patient complained they were feeling a more intense pain than normal within the first few seconds but after Shichiro snapped at them to 'Endure the pain' they had settled down gritting their teeth. He wasn't sure how he knew when the spell did all it could for a person but he just had a feeling when it was time to stop. After he had stopped, the patient had said they felt much less pain than before the treatment began. Shichiro wasn't quite sure how he did it exactly but he was somewhat glad it worked. Maybe when he perfected these healing techniques of his, he could use it on himself. He's heard most healing mages couldn't heal their own wounds but he felt like he was different from them. He decided he would test the limits of his healing prowess later. 

Next, he decided he would walk over towards the next patient who claimed they had a long gash across there leg from a support beam nearly falling on top of them. They got out of the way just in time but it still managed to slash off a a large chunk of flesh. Somebody's done a shoddy job of bandaging it up to the point where it has to be changed and cleaned frequently for fear of infection setting in earlier. Regardless, Shichiro signaled a near by 'caretaker' to come over and remove the bandages wrapped around the patient's leg. The nurse reluctantly done so, even if they didn't like it but they had happened to witness Shichiro's earlier outburst and decided they didn't want the hassle. After removing the bandages, Shichiro lifted his left arm once more, placing it over the wounded leg, once again focusing his mana to the center of his palm. Looming over the wound, he noticed it was getting better but he couldn't heal it up all the way. Well, he guessed there was a limit to his healing powers since he wasn't a natural born healer. Well, this was the best he could do. He couldn't recover the skin but at least the gash had closed up and the muscles weren't violently torn anymore. 

Well, at least it wasn't bleeding profusely anymore but it still had to be cleaned and bandaged properly. Maybe Ylva could take over or something since she was the one that volunteered to come over to heal these poor saps.  Either way, he had done all he could for this patient. He continued to treat people as best as he could with his minimal ability to heal. EVentually, he had treated all the wounded but he wasn't sure how effective it have been on the sick, not that he was eager to try. Either way, he left the medical hut to assist with other endeavors until the sun began to set. Wiping sweat off of his forehead, he walked over to Nero and slapped his back in the for of a 'good job.' He then addressed Ylva, patting her head before silently walking back to the gates of Crocus.

[Exit.]

W.C: 1,003
T.W.C: 2013

Greed really was a terrible thing. The beautiful shining city of crocus was something to be admired. Inside its walls people were safe and crime wasn’t all that crazy, it was really a nice place for someone to live...If that someone was rich. The poor who couldn’t afford to live inside of the city struggled outside its walls with little to no help outside the pity shown from mages. It was truly disgusting to see a place with so much money treat it’s poorer citizens the way they do. Ylva looked around the village, according to the village leader they had just recently been attacked by bandits. That sort of thing should have been handled by the rune knights, those shitty knights couldn't even take care of this themselves.

If the mages were going to be doing all of the work that the Rune Knights should have been doing then was there even a reason for the rune knights to be around at all? The simple answer was no, there was no reason for them at all really unless it was just to protect to rich and no one else. Thinking about it she could remember when she was learning the language of Fiore. Her mind drifted off to a man named Erebus, the same man who taught her that the Rune Knights might as well be called shit. She didn’t know what that meant at the time but she did now and the thought of it made her chuckle to herself. Thinking of the man she wondered where he was now. The last interaction she had with him made her mind go numb and her stomach fuzzy. She was too innocent back in those days but she knew now that he was probably more dangerous than he let on. Ylva could feel a sigh coming up as she really wanted to see him again. She was her first friend and it had been so long she was starting to worry about him. Hoping that he was ok wasn’t enough anymore and she figured she’d try to find his whereabouts after she was done with her business in Crocus.

It seemed that Shichiro allowed himself to get dragged along. She didn’t expect that it would actually work but she was more than pleased to have him in her presence. He wasn’t like Erebus, no he was much more level headed and cool. She didn’t mind his sometimes standoffish presence. Still, she hardly knew him and that was really because the two didn’t have time to sit down and really have a conversation. They didn’t even get to meet up for the ball, something they said they would do once they got to crocus. It was funny how the two kept running into each other but it sucked that it was under circumstances that didn’t really allow them to hang out and whatnot. Now that she thought about it when she did see Shichiro the last time and today he was with another guy who she remembered was named Nero. Ylva couldn’t remember if she introduced herself to him and now she felt like shit because she might have come off rude to the guy. Now that she had to think about what she was going to make certain to properly introduce herself to him and maybe once they were all done she could take the two out to lunch or something, maybe for some drinks and all that. Yea that sounded like a nice idea and she really hoped they would accept her offer.

Ylva and Shichiro arrived at their destination and it didn’t take long for Shichiro to get to work and that impressed Ylva. She didn’t take him as a healer and was really gonna use him as an assistant but she soon heard the cries of mother. Ylva quickly ran over to the mother and asked her what was wrong. The woman could hardly speak between sobs and Ylva could see a small child in her hands. The salt and peppered haired woman looked up at Ylva and shook her head. She explained that no one could help her child who was very sick. She didn’t have the money for medicine and the village didn’t have the funds to get any either. The only way for the woman to get the medicine she needed for her child as if she went to crocus and she couldn’t do that either, because that would mean leaving her other children to fend for herself, not to mention she didn’t have the money for it. Ylva was disgusted at how the world was run currently when a mother couldn’t afford to keep her child alive. Ylva’s face turned into one of sadness and she held her arms out to the woman. Ylva explained that she was a mage and that she was very good at healing.


The woman seemed hesitant and exclaimed once more that she did not have anymore. Ylva shook her head and told her not to worry about that at all. The woman slowly passed her child along to Ylva who quickly took the child in her arms. The child looked underweight and had a mop of dirty blond hair on its head. Ylva placed her hand over the child and a magic circle appeared before a droplet of water touched the child. The first drop brought color to the child’s cheeks and the next droplet caused his breathing to become normal, the third dropped brought his temperature to normal and Ylva was sure that all he needed was rest now. Ylva explained to the woman that her child will be ok with some rest and the woman couldn’t thank her enough. The rest of the time Ylva spent was helping multiple people from small things like dislocated shoulders to large gashes caused by accidents. The people around her were in awe of her abilities and soon she had her hands full taking care of the people one by one. Most people Ylva could help without magic but those with more severe problems needed that magical touch. Soon she was done with her work and grouping up with the guys she offered them a drink later in Crocus. She gave them a time and a place before departing and if they came they came, if not she would still enjoy herself. Once she got paid she headed out of the village.


-exit -


1076/2000+