Kyou spent the whole of the next day pondering over what happened. The man's words, his oddly shaped weapon and most mysterious of all, his appearance...
He bore a striking resemblance to Kyou, anyone could tell from a mere glance. It was almost uncanny.
He wanted to know more. He wanted to pour an entire heap of questions onto him, but that would be going against his father's will. At least indirectly. The man was clearly trying to avoid Alleria.
Maybe his father would be able to answer some questions as well, but doing so would severe any connection he had to the traveller and more importantly….
"Can I really trust dad….?"
He had his doubts in Alleria. The man had hidden the existence an entire world from him - from the entire town. Trusting him again would be stranger than not.
Were these answers important to him? So important that he'd give up his relationship with his father for them…..?
And as he continued to dwell on his thoughts, staring into the ever-busy markets lining the streets, a day had flown by.
He trudged back home, his entire body dragged down by the weight of his decisions. However, going to the traveller was a more favourable option than Alleria. That much was obvious. If he wanted answers, he'd go to him.
He gave the worn down door of his disheveled house a hard push. An orange light flooded through the cracks of the door.
His father was rarely, if ever home. He was always busy somewhere, in some other part of the town. Kyou didn't know what his father did exactly but as the town head, he figured it was a reasonably busy role.
"You're back."
Alleria said, glancing up from his desk. He was tinkering with some marble-shaped object, the ones Kyou was told never to touch.
Alleria had dark bags under his eyes that looked almost swollen. His limbs were so thin Kyou could make out his bones through them. However, he remained smiling through all that.
Kyou's resolve wavered. This was the man who had raised him for over a decade. If he couldn't trust him, was there anyone in the world he could?
His father toiled away day after day for the sake of not just him, but the entire town. Whatever he did, no matter what he said, there had to be a good reason behind it, right?
"…. You look more tired than usual."
Alleria frowned and continued to work on what he was doing before.
"I have been really busy these few days. A troublemaker has caused quite the ruckus and it's thrown the entire town into a panic…"
"Panic? They seemed just fine to me."
Alleria paused and glanced back up at Kyou with an inquisitive expression on his face. Like a switch had been flipped inside him, Alleria's dreary face suddenly turned red.
"Oh, uhhhh yeah. Right, I guess it's not that big a deal. I mean, not enough to- uhh… affect their lives. J-Just me then. Haha…."
And with that, every shred of trust Kyou still held for Alleria came crumbling down. He was obviously hiding something, and had no intention of telling Kyou.
He made up his mind - he was headed to a different gate the next day.
***
Kyou walked through the empty street, with each step he took causing a great echo to reverberate down the street.
The stalls weren't empty - they weren't even there. He hadn't been to this place much, even though it was just down the street.
The Respite was a relatively small town - a street cut through its centre and linked both the main and side gates to each other. Kyou could walk the whole thing in under half an hour. He estimated that it was probably around 2 kilometres in length.
However, the difference between both ends of the town was like night and day. In great contrast to its counterpart, this side of the town housed not a soul.
He heard that people who got even remotely close fell ill. Sometimes it got so bad that they'd collapse in the middle of the day, or start puking blood out of nowhere.
Kyou, of course, never believed such stories. It was most likely a superstition. After all, not many people came here anyway, there was no way to tell whether the rumours were true or not.
However, standing in front of this gate, identical to the one he usually guarded, he had to agree to some extent. This felt different from the other gate, but he couldn't put his finger around why.
As he approached the gate, a dark figure standing in a corner got more and more visible. Kyou waved his hand and approached it until it suddenly grabbed his waving wrist and pulled him towards the door.
Kyou winced, bracing for a head-on collision with the hard, steel door…. But the impact never came. He slowly reopened his eyes and found himself in a bustling market street identical to the one he was familiar with.
Actually, it was more accurate to say that it was the one he knew, at least that's what he thought at first. However, on closer inspection, the signs were written in a language he didn't understand.
Kyou glanced around, taking it all in. The first thing he noticed upon entering was the heat. Or was it warmth? He always wore a thick fur coat even on the hottest of days but not once had he felt even remotely warm.
In fact, it was always unbearably cold. However, it was at least a hundred times hotter here, so much that he started perspiring and had to take off the coat for the first time.
He continued inspecting the scene. At first glance, there seemed to be nothing wrong with the people but most of them had strange blue symbols on one part of their body or another. He was reminded of his father and the traveller, though their ones were in red.
"What is this place…."
He couldn't help but mutter as he continued to look around like a bewildered child who had come out for the first time. Maybe because he was one.
However, only the busy chattering of the lively street answered him. Before he knew it, the figure that had pulled him here was already walking 20 steps ahead on the street.
Like when he was first pursuing the traveller, Kyou squeezed his way through the hordes of people, eventually making his way back to the figure's side.
"Hey uhhhh…."
He said, as he continued walking alongside the figure. Come to think of it, they still didn't know each other's names yet.
"Elyon."
It was the first word he said the whole day. It was a peculiar name, but he shrugged it off. Elyon wasn't exactly a local after all.
"Kyou. Just Kyou."
He gave his own name in exchange.
Kyou thought about what he'd ask first. There were so many questions that he didn't know which to prioritize. He thought about it for a second, eyes fixated on the slightly smaller version of himself when something struck him.
"Wait- where do you even keep that curved blade?"
"Scythe."
And Elyon elaborated no further. He was evidently a man of few words.
"Scythe?"
"The name of the 'curved blade'. Scythe."
"Oh yeah….. but where is it now?"
"I don't need it now so it's not here."
He left it somewhere? That means that the current Elyon was completely defenseless, right?
As they continued their conversation, Kyou still taking in the sights around him, a sharp blaring noise suddenly cut through the air. It interrupted his train of thoughts, and annoyed, he turned to the direction of that noise.
"THERE HE IS! THE-"
It was a man dressed in a formal blue attire. It was a guard, and he was pointing towards Elyon. However, before he could finish, he found himself lying unconscious on the ground.
Elyon turned away and clicked his tongue - this was clearly something he was used to. Kyou looked back at the man sympathetically. He wouldve missed it if he even blinked.
The white scythe was hovering through the air and sweeped the guard off his feet, as if it possessed a will of its own. It happened so fast and was so unbelievable that Kyou questioned his own eyes but as more and more guards started surrounding them, it continued to occur repeatedly.
"Wha- you said you didn't have it."
"I need it now."
As more guards fell to the ground around them, Kyou felt his surroundings getting colder and colder. Was it his imagination? He glanced around the market and found that everyone else had vanished.
Frost was accumulating on the windows of buildings lining the street. Something was clearly causing this drop in temperature. Kyou breathed out and it condensed into a cloud of moisture instantly.
"I-It's getting quite cold huh."
However, Elyon seemed completely unfazed by this. He defeated the guards who were swarming them as they entered his line of sight, the scythe appearing and disappearing as soon it knocked them unconscious.
This lasted no more than 2 minutes. Elyon made quick work of the guards and the now empty market street was nearly frozen over now.
There were about 50 guards lying all over and while he could see a few more hiding between the buildings, they no longer seemed interested in engaging Elyon. Calling Elyon a natural disaster was no understatement. He was a force to be reckoned with.
"Follow me. Quickly."
With just these 3 words, he pulled Kyou's hand once more and dashed between the buildings, into small alleyways and winding corridors. After about 5 minutes of this, he stopped dead in his tracks.
It wasn't as cold as before but he could feel that the air around Elyon was chillier than normal. He was probably the reason why the market froze over just now as well, though Kyou had no idea how he did it.
Elyon turned around and looked Kyou dead in the eye.
"What is Alleria to you?"
Kyou was stunned by the question. It was the second time he didn't know how to respond to Elyon. What was he even supposed to say? Even he didn't know anymore.
"He's…. The man who brought me up."
"I see…."
Elyon nodded slowly, before reopening his mouth and continuing.
"I'm looking for a book. A book he has. I'm sure you have a lot of questions. I'll do my best to answer them but….. are you willing to betray your own father?"
Kyou's breathing stiffened. It was his thoughts - or rather what he was too afraid to think - put into words in the harshest way possible. Were these answers worth this much to him….?
"Yes."
"Very well."
Elyon closed his eye and straightened his posture.
"I'm wanted by Alleria for being in this city."