Chapter 3 - The world as the boy knows (2)

Winter had come.

Of course it was just the start but there was already a layer of white covering everything the eyes could behold.

There was a boy sitting near a bench by the river as he stared down at the frozen water.

Unlike his fears, he wasn't feeling cold at all.

The boy wasn't sure exactly what was going on, the snow was clearly cold to the touch and he could see his own breath every time he breathed out.

However, he did not feel cold.

At first he thought it was the magical piece of cloth he had on but soon realized that this was not the case.

Even without the cloth around him, he was not feeling cold at all.

Something must've had happened to him in the lab, that was the only thing he could deduce.

An old man slowly walked by the banks of the river with a man, who seemed to be his servant of a sort, right behind him.

The old man had a nice black winter suit on with a hat to match and cover himself from the snow. As for the man behind him, he was wearing a clean butler's outfit as he held an umbrella to shield the old man from the weather.

The old man was Baron Silverwing. He was a veteran knight who had retired over a decade ago due to his age and was now living within the capital. He had been granted a small residence near the outskirts of the royal district by his highness upon his retirement and often strolled the river when he was collecting his thoughts.

Despite his age, his back was still straight and he gave off an aura of a fierce warrior to those who saw him. This was probably an effect of his stature, as he was no small man, but it intidimated most people nontherless.

The Baron noticed the small boy, who was still staring into the river in a daze, as he smiled and walked up to sit upon the bench besides the boy after dusting off the snow a bit. The servant quickly followed him and stood besides him.

The Baron glanced at the boy, who seemed to not even notice his prescence, and followed his gaze unto the frozen river.

"Every year, the weather seems to become colder and colder. Are you not cold in that outfit?" The Baron spoke out.

The boy, startled, turned his head to his left to notice the two men before returning his gaze back onto the river.

"No." The boy spoke. He stole another glance at the man and quickly deduced that the man must've been rich. Maintaining servants weren't cheap after all.

"Where are you from?" The Baron spoke.

"I don't know." The boy really did not know. He had forgotten a lot of his past memories, most of it was very fuzzy.

"And your parents?" The Baron asked.

"..." The boy's head dropped down.

"Dead." This he knew for sure. The visions of his parents being killed by monsters and him being taken by them still haunted him to this day. Though he couldn't quite remember their faces, he knew he missed them still.

The Baron nodded. This was commonplace within the Kingdom. Though this was the capital, there were still monsters that inhabited the nearby forests and plains and many villages were often victims to their attacks.

The knights of the kingdom did their best to maintain the safety and peace of the lands but because of the eastern warfront, there was only so much they could do for the people of the kingdom themselves.

It would be lucky if a village had a retired knight or a knight-in-training since they would be able to defend against most monster attacks but the majority of retired knights and those people who were training to become a knight lived within the capital.

This was because retired knights often recieved a residence within the capital and the fact that there was a knight's academy that was located near the heart of this city.

This caused many villages to privatly hire mercenaries to defend their town but not all villages were fortunate enough to have such money to spend. The result of this was farmers defending themselves against small monsters with their tools and shabby weapons.

But this was useless against a monster horde or a powerful monster.

Many families were ravaged throughout the lands and this only continued to worsen as the war continued to drain the country and its people.

And the Baron was one of those who were strongly against this war, despite the necessity of it.

It was taken too many and had given back nothing to the people of the country.

Look at the boy besides him. His parents are dead and he was now casted aside upon the streets to fend for himself at such an young age.

It was likely the boy would not survive this winter like the others he had met prior.

They sat in silence for a moment as the Baron noticed that the sun was setting.

"James." The Baron spoke as he stood up.

"Yes, sir." The butler quickly followed up. His arms hurt from holding the umbrella for so long but he did not complain. This was his job after all.

"Bring the boy and clean him up." The Baron walked off with these words as the servant, James, glanced at the boy before speaking as well. "Follow me please."

The boy was about to say no in distruct but the Baron turned his head at that moment and spoke out. "This is no place for a boy like you to wander around at night. Follow me, I'm not cruel enough to just ignore you and leave."

The Baron then continued to walk off as the Servant smiled and spoke as well. "We aren't bad people, though that's what most bad people would say when trying to poach you, but I do assure you that master is just trying to help you. He's a good man."

And those last words shook the boy. Not because he thought it was a lie but mainly because the message from the note flashed by his mind.

'Maybe...?' With slight hopes of the old man being the person who had saved him from the lab, the boy nodded and stood up before quickly following the servant.