Fading Peace I

Kies followed Nina around as she went shopping. He couldn't help but notice that there were a lot fewer people outside than normal. The rumor of there being spies in the kingdom had really made everyone paranoid to the point where they were scared out of their minds of even stepping foot outside their homes. But Kies didn't really mind this since fewer people meant fewer crowds.

They passed by several stands with new things that they've never seen before. One of the items caught Kies' attention and he went over to take a closer look at it. It was a short metal rod with a hole on one side and a button on its body. "It's amazing how even though we're in a war, new inventions keep coming out," Kies says as he picks up the rod.

Nina walked over and took a look at what Kies was holding. The shopkeeper explained to them that the device was called a fire starter and its function is exactly what its name would suggest. "Right now, because we're in a war, this thing is practically useless. People won't be going outside to travel anytime soon. I don't even remember why I decided to make this in the first place," he told them.

"How much for it?" Kies asked. Although it was true that traveling is impossible right now with the war going on, Kies felt that there were still ways to use it. Whenever he sees something useful such as a tool or gadget, he has the sudden urge to buy it just in case it ever comes in handy.

"You're buying it?" the shopkeeper asked confusedly.

"Yes, or are you not selling it?"

"No, no, I am. It's just I'm surprised that you want it. Originally, I wanted to sell this to the army since being able to start a fire quickly is very useful in war. But as it turns out, the army has fire mages and matches which are a lot cheaper and more efficient than that rod," the shopkeeper explained. "I mean, I'm perfectly fine with selling it to you if you want it but don't say I didn't warn you. That thing only has five uses before it runs out of fuel and it's pretty expensive to get more."

"I understand and I still want to buy this," Kies told the shopkeeper.

"Alright then."After some negotiation about the price, the shopkeeper sold the fire starter to Kies.

"Don't you already have enough of these things?" Nina asked Kies as they were walking away from the stand. "If I recall, you have almost three boxes filled with these things and they're just lying around collecting dust. You say that they're useful but I never see a time where you even need to use one of them."

"I mean, it's never a bad thing to have things like these," Kies said embarrassingly. It was true that he had never even once used one of the gadgets he brought but he couldn't help it. "On the bright side, if something ever does happen or if we ever need something, we may be able to find the solution in my room.

"I guess, but what do we need that for?" Nina was asking specifically about the fire starter. "Wait, you're not planning to set someone's house ablaze are you?" Nina asked in a worried voice.

"No, of course not!" Kies replied. "Though as much as I want to do exactly that to a certain toothpick of a noble, I'll hold off on that idea."

"You know, I never asked before, but what grudge do you and Ekelle have against each other?"

"I'll tell you later once we go back to the orphan- ugh, I mean mansion," Kies corrected himself.

"So it has something to do with when you were at the orphanage?"

"Yes. It's a long story, I'll tell you about it when we get home."

After a few more minutes of browsing stores, Nina decided that she had enough for the day and they went back home. On the way home, Nina brought up something she noticed. "You did a lot better today compared to all those previous times," she complimented Kies.

"What do you mean?" Kies asked.

"It's been an hour and a half and you don't look like a serial killer searching for their next victim," Nina told him jokingly.

"..."

"Actually, I take that back. You're making that face right now." Nina laughed. As they were walking back home, she looked in her bag. She didn't buy much today since most of the shops were closed.

"Say, why not tell me the story now?" Nina suggested to Kies. "It's going to take a while for us to reach home." She was asking about the grudge between him and Ekelle.

"I don't see why not," said Kies. He explained to Nina the reason why the two of them hated each other. When he was younger, he would often see Ekelle visiting the orphanage he was at. The noble constantly harassed the orphanage and its caretakers for not teaching the children about faith. The orphanage disagreed and explained that they didn't want to force it upon the children and that they should have the choice to choose for themselves when they grow up.

However, Ekelle didn't like that answer and threatened to tear down the orphanage and replace it with a church instead and have the orphans live there. Of course, the orphanage ignored his threats since he was being unbelievably unreasonable.

One day, while Kies was playing around in the garden, he found the noble loitering around the orphanage. The noble was acting very suspicious and Kies decided to sneakily follow him. He found out that Ekelle was planning to set the orphanage on fire and so he stopped him. When Ekelle found an empty spot that was away from any wandering eyes, he picked up a few fallen twigs and placed them in a small pile next to the wall of the orphanage. Then he grabbed a good-sized stick and lit it on fire with his magic.

But before Ekelle could toss the stick into the pile of twigs, Kies popped out from the bush and used wind magic to try to put out the fire. It didn't really go as Kies had expected and the fire ended up getting on the noble's collar and setting his clothes on fire. The noble dropped the stick and ran around screaming like a maniac for a few seconds before dropping to the floor and rolling around to put out the fire. His shouting attracted the attention of a few of the caretakers and they discovered his plan of burning down the orphanage.

The orphanage reported this incident to the knights and Ekelle was put on trial. Unfortunately, the court was filled with nobles, and since Ekelle was a noble as well, instead of being executed for such a crime, he was let off with some light punishments. The orphanage was very unhappy about the decision but there was nothing they could do about it. But since this decision was extremely unfair, it outraged the public and the commoners began to protest for his execution. In the end, the court had no choice but to deliver a harsher punishment.

They stripped Ekelle of some of his possessions and land and demoted him several ranks. The people were still unhappy about the decision but the court reasoned that no one was actually harmed so execution was not necessary.

Because of that incident, Ekelle despised the orphanage even more and blamed Kies for his suffering. There were also several times where Ekelle tried adopting Kies but the orphanage denied him every time since it was pretty obvious that the noble wanted to get revenge on him. One time, he even tried kidnapping Kies and it ended up with him getting into huge trouble with the knights. And once again, the court defended him saying that no actual harm was done and let Ekelle off with another small punishment.

Ever since that incident, Ekelle had been banned from being near the orphanage. If he was ever found even remotely close to there, the knights or guards can arrest him for that reason alone.

After Kies finished his story Nina said, "Wow, I never knew that you went through something like that."

"Eh, it's whatever," Kies replied. They were almost at the mansion and Kies pointed it out to Nina. "Perfect timing, we're almost home."

When they got home, Kies went straight to the back of the mansion to get some training in before dinner. Nina decided to go to her room to start reading the new books she brought today. After that, the two of them spent some time in the garden behind the mansion and went to sleep.

***

A few miles away from Silverfield, soldiers were clashing against each other and the grounds were stained with red. Otanian soldiers had the advantage in numbers and weaponry, slowly pushing Silvian soldiers back to their kingdom. The stalemate ended a few days ago. For reasons unknown to the Silvian soldiers, they suddenly found themselves facing triple their numbers and that the enemy was armed with new and more powerful equipment.

Over the past few days, the Silvian soldiers were forced to retreat further and further back into their lands. It was only a matter of time before the enemy would push them back to the walls of their kingdom.

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