4: the Summon [Aya]

I used to imagine my whole town covered in ash, frozen in time.

It’s as if nothing ever changed here in Shimizu Town, located deep within the Third Sector. Every day was the same as the next, events kept repeating in a seemingly endless loop. A never-ending circle threatened to overtake my mind, and I couldn’t help but fear how it was going to end up consuming me, just like it did to everyone else. As though I was nothing more than a mere hamster, running on the Wheel of Time, waiting to be free from my cage.

And when it finally happened…I lost everything.

The morning fog was covering the still-sleeping Shimizu Town, only a few people were out finishing their business or having an early start to the day I was among them. My hometown was surrounded by a large, stone-made Wall that protected its inhabitants from anything unpleasant, be they invading enemies or the monsters lurking outside.

Civilians weren’t allowed to leave the Town without special permission given by Warden Momonga’s office, even for that one had to have a good reason why they wanted to leave. Even if one got permission, they had to wait until their escort contacted them with a time slot to ensure a safe journey wherever they wanted to go and back.

Not all journey’s outside were a success, there were more tragedies than not.

I crossed the street, pulling my jacket closer to my body to ward off morning cold, while barely glancing up from the parchment slip in my hand. The writing on it was nearly impossible to decipher if one wasn’t familiar with it, it was a Summoning to Warden Momonga’s office, requesting my presence at my earliest convenience.

The letter had been delivered by a gloomy-looking guy, dressed in all black and dark clothes. There was barely a hint of his identity showing except for his black eyes, due to his face being covered by a dark color-schemed cloth.

I didn’t know his name, but I’d come to recognize his presence which was how he didn’t end up dead when he showed up in front of me at my apartment. I’d seen him enough times standing guard in Warden Momonga’s office, however, he’d never uttered a word until today, effectively scaring the shit out of me as I’d been minding my business. His voice was cold, tone blunt and short and it enhanced his nonchalance.

If I had to guess, then the Guard wasn’t that much older than I was, he was a head taller than me.

“To hell with this,” I muttered with a sigh, holding my palm up and the parchment slip burst into small blue-greenish colored flames, erasing any evidence of the summoning. “It better be important to summon me like this…at an ungodly early hour!”

There was a chuckle, and my eyebrow twitched.

‘You could’ve ignored it, Mistress~,’ Faustus snickered in my mind, sounding amused. ‘Not like they could’ve forced you to do anything you don’t like.’

I snorted, “Yeah, and get an earful from Fuwa? Have you already forgotten how scary Fuwa can be if we misbehave?” I shuddered, recalling the last time Oboro and Ran had acted out and got punished by a pissed-off Fuwa.

By ‘we’ I meant the members of Howling Aquilo, founded by my childhood best friend Haruse Seiren. There were six of us in total, we weren’t your everyday normal people who got along with each other and didn’t threaten to constantly kill the other but…well, you get the point.

From what I heard, Oboro had completed her job without a hitch but it was the aftermath that pissed Fuwa off - she’d gone and gotten drunk, sent the bill to Warden Momonga’s office (Oboro loathes the man), and nearly demolished a village in a drunken match against someone. On the other hand, Ran…he’d erased an entire village off of the map. According to him the entire village was swarmed with humans possessed by demons and was beyond the saving point.

Whatever the cause was, Fuwa had turned the two into wax-like dolls for half a day as a punishment, while muttering something about why he was forced to deal with idiots. Since that day, both Oboro and Ran have been extra wary of the usually quiet, solemn, and nice-guy Fuwa Setsu.

I’d once asked Seiren why he appointed Fuwa as the leader of Howling Aquilo, instead of himself, to which merely grinned and said ‘people don’t really expect a nice guy like Setsu to be someone dangerous, isn’t it fun to mess with them like that?’ His ocean-blue eyes had twinkled with mischief.

Faustus laughed, knowing exactly what I was thinking of.

‘I can see what Haruse means,’ I could clearly envision Faustus grinning from his stone-made throne illustrated with human bones and skulls, and a soft white fur covering his seating.

I pocketed my hands and crossed the almost empty street. A sudden sound of an engine reached my ears, making me briefly pause in my steps and glance in its direction. Only to blink as I recognized the red and black colored bike that zoomed past me, the breeze of the wind brought by the bike’s fast movement playfully messed with my hair, disappearing into the street behind me.

I could recognize this bike from anywhere, having seen it one too many times when it took up unnecessary space back in our headquarters.

Fu, a fellow member of Howling Aquilo and a guy you didn’t want as your enemy.

A small laugh escaped my lips before it twisted into an amused smirk.

“Looks like things are as lively as ever,” I muttered, briefly narrowing my light amber eyes once the Warden’s extravagant-looking mansion came into the view like a monument waiting to be unveiled. “Especially now that Fu’s back in the town,” I added as an afterthought.

Warden’s Mansion was old, ancient even.

It looked like it could fall over at any given moment and was in heavy need of reconstruction, but the office lacked funds for it. The Clans refused to lend their buildings to the Peace Patrols, claiming that they didn’t want the stink of commoners to soil the buildings.

There, in front of the main door that had seen better days, were two guards stationed. Both Guards were dressed in the same color scheme as the Warden’s messenger had been, signifying that they didn’t belong to the Peace Patrols unit. Upon noticing me approaching them, the guards instantly saluted.

“The Warden’s been waiting for you, Hyuga-sama,” one of them said, barely able to hide his distaste toward me. I could hear Faustus snickering at my dead-panned expression for being addressed so formally. No matter how many times I’ve told them to drop -sama honorific, they were still as unpleasantly stiff as ever and refused to call me just Hyuga or Aya.

“Please head straight in, Momonga-sama has been waiting for you,” the other guard opened the door for me as he gestured for me to enter.

I walked right past them, completely giving up on trying to get them to ease up around me and not treat me as a Noble since technically, I wasn’t one anymore. Not since I walked out on them.

“A’right, a’right, I’m goin’ there now. Don’t get your panties all twisted up,” I grunted, flipping my golden brown hair off of my shoulder. “The old pig never specified the exact time.”

The guards’ disgruntled grumbling was satisfying enough that I couldn’t help but openly laugh, even when the door behind me fell shut.