Gaining currency

As the crowd erupted into euphoria, Art stood there, a little shocked but nonetheless very happy himself. He reached into the bag of fruits he was holding. Doan was on the other side of him, just looking in Art's direction with a smirk.

As the villagers settled down they started leaving the center, going back to their previous activity. Doan starting going up the stairway. The stairs were old fashioned and seemed to be built with the same purple brick material as the walls.

Art took a bite of another fruit. This one was similar to the gapple but white in color instead. Doan came to a stop and Art bumped right into him.

"Hey Doan why'd you stop?" Art stepped back. He walked past Doan and went in front of him, he felt a a hand grab his shirt from the back in place before her even moved.

"Sorry lad, I'm afraid from here on out you'll refer to me as Sir Hilbert." Doan who was now referring himself as Sir Hilbert continued.

"And make sure to give the king a good first impression as a new citizen of Sweeten."

Art's eyes lit up in the excitement.

"Wow we're gonna go see the king? That's so cool!"

"Haha I suppose it is 'cool'." Sir Hilbert pulled out a small black stick the size of a toothpick, out of the pocket of his trousers. He extended his dominant hand outward holding the stick. As the stick started to suddenly spur out a small number of vibrations, it started changing, materializing and strengthening. It grew long in size, at least as long as Sir Hilbert's height. The very tip of the stick had a metallic black glow to it as a small sharp point slowly formed, finishing its transformation into a spear.

Art had been released from the grasp Doan had on his shirt long before. He was able to witness the spears transformation, at a close range.

"That was super cool!" Art stated.

"Indeed it was." Sir Hilbert started walking towards the sugar knight, who stood outside an open front gate.

The king trusted his people so he didn't bother having a tight security. Just a large doorway without any doors.

Sir Hilbert, walked through the doors with Art following right behind him.

The entrance connected to a long stairway to the right, with portraits of fellow knights and previous kings. On the left was a long corridor that curved outwards towards the left.

Sir Hilbert started walking up the stairs, skipping one in between each foot.

He walked past a row of a dozen rooms. He took a left and started going up a second set of stairs.

Art was admiring the castle as he walked. The smoothly lined purple bricks and a few torches with a white flame, that were held up by sconces, on the side of the walls.

Sir Hilbert arrived in the throne room. The door was open so he took a small step and gave a knock before entering.

"Your Majesty!" He saluted, hitting the bottom of his spear against the ground.

He smiled noticing Rena and the young knight Poq was there. He walked towards the king and the two standing near him.

"I've brought a certain child for you to meet!" Doan stepped aside, as a young boy was standing there too busy looking at the paintings in the room, to notice the king and the two people, who were now looking at him.

"Ah, so this must be Art!" The king looked at the boy. The boy looked very young at about 4 feet 11 inches. He had shaggy light blue hair, with the sides trimmed shortly, and at the top was a a group of hair, curled up into a swirl that was sticking out of his head. The hair was a completely different color than his entire hair.

Art heard his name and looked at the 3 people, not realizing they were there.

"Oh hello there, you are the king?" Art asked.

"Indeed I am." The king walked up to Art and placed a warm hand on his shoulder.

"It's good to meet you, dear boy."

Art just stared at the king, his head tilting slightly as curiosity built up.

"Hey, so if you're king that must mean you're the strongest right?" Art asked excitedly.

The king shook his head.

"Nonsense, dear boy." The King chuckled.

"True strength isn't all about muscle. True strength is found in here." The king tapped Art's chest, with a finger.

Doan smiled, looking at Art as he remembered hearing similar words from the King as a youth.

Art just looked at the king, puzzled

"Huh what's that supposed to mean?"

The King let out a loud laughter, and ruffled Art's hair.

" You'll know when you're older!"

A fourth person arrived at the throne room as the king's laughter was suddenly interrupted by the entrance of a young woman.

"Your Majesty" The lady quickly bowed, as she walked up him with file of papers. The papers looked extremely thin, and looked pink and transparent . The reason for that was the sap from the sugar trees, was not as strong as the sap from the rest of the trees, but was the most common so the only option,

"Here is all the information for new citizen Art"

The lady handed him the papers.

"He is now registered to the bank of Sweeten." The lady said before giving a curtly nod to Poq, Rena and Doan. She then walked towards Art who couldn't help but notice that the lady was very pretty.

"Good evening young citizen Art!" The woman greeted.

"I'm Ethel, and I'm the guardian of the vault of the bank of Sweeten." Ethel informed.

"We have registered you into vault 390000. I sure hope you are a child with energy because you would be in need of it to arrive at your vault." She held her hand by her mouth as she chuckled.

Art was simply blushing as Ethel was very pretty. He nodded in response to everything she said. He was entranced.

"Before you can actually access it, you need to earn at least 50 Treats."

"50 Treats?" Art asked, remembering the fruit stand lady mentioning having to pay for the fruits.

"That's correct, 50 Treats." Ethel smiled.

"Not to worry, find yourself a good job and you'll get paid in no time! Children such as yourself are much more capable than the older ones!" She giggled.

"Where can I sign up for a job?" Art asked, looking back at Doan.

"You just go to the bank. There's a big board by the entrance where you can write your name. The list is full of vacant jobs. I recommend you choose harvester. The tasks are easy and you could get Treats easily at a young age." Doan suggested.

Art nodded, feeling like a harvester wouldn't be too hard.

"Well it's settled then! Doan why don't you go and show Art where the bank is?" King Dulcee, requested.

"Yea Doan, show me where it is." Art repeated in a teasing manner.

Ethel gasped and just giggled

"A mouthy one." Poq said

"Your Majesty isn't that against our respect to the Sugar Knights?" Rena whispered to the king, cupping her hand slightly to block the sound.

King Dulcee chuckled lightly

"Let's let Doan deal with his own problems."

"It's Sir Hilbert in this attire." Doan wrapped an arm around Art's shoulder.

"Come on, let's go." Doan led the boy, out of the throne room.

"Goodbye dear boy, you'll get paid in no time mark my words." King Dulcee, as Rena, and Poq nodded their hands in agreement.

"Bye Art." Ethel waved playfully with a sweet smile.

Art couldn't help but look back as he heard her voice. He noticed her face and quickly looked away, walking away with Doan

Ethel knew about the way the boy reacted seeing her. She felt like teasing him slightly because of it.

'Pretty' Art thought, as he went down the stairs.

As they exited the castle, Doan kept his hand on Art's back, as he continued walking down the outside flight of stairs.

He stopped when he was at the third level of the village, and stepped off the stairs.

He started leading Art to a massive building with multiple stories to the right, surrounded by a small pink fence.

They arrived in front of the building and Art could see a pink sign with gold letters that read "Bank of Sweeten".

They walked in and were greeted by a sweet old woman with glasses, and slight gray hair.

"Oh my! Sugar Knight Sir Hilbert, what brings you here?" The woman asked in surprise.

"Madam Rue, please it's just Doan." Doan held his hands up chuckling.

The old woman raised her arm and placed her hand on Doan's cheek.

"Such a nice young man you have become. I still remember the first day you came here to register to your vault. You were so young and naive." The woman smiled, her eyes crinkling.

Doan chuckled, reminiscing of his past.

"Yes, I had no idea what i was doing back then."

Art ducked under Doan's, arm walking off to what seemed to be the job list board. He grabbed a pen that was, lying below the board on the table. He scanned through the different jobs and wrote his name down in gold letters on one of the harvesters empty spots.

He then walked back to Doan who was still talking to the old woman and tapped his shoulder.

"Hey I wrote my name on the harvester job."

Doan looked down as he felt a tap on his shoulder.

"Well it was really nice to talk to you Madam Rue, but I have been assigned to show young Art here his vault." He started walking off.

"Art, I see you're the new citizen." Madam Rue smiled at the blue haired boy.

"If you have any questions feel free to talk to me! I've been working here for 100 years!"

"Okay thanks Madam Rue!" Art said with a small smile and waved goodbye to her as he walked away, catching up to Doan.

Art and Doan walked past the bank teller stations, and started climbing a spiral staircase. The staircase was purple as all the other stone and very narrow. Every other step on the staircase seemed to be worn down.

Doan looked back as they had been climbing for what seemed an hour, and to his surprise Art was right behind him, just smiling happily, not looking winded.

As they finally reached the first level of the vaults they realized it said "Vault 00001-19000" in a small sign underneath the door that led to the first vault room.

Art read the sign, sighing as he knew his vault would be found at the very top.

They continued up the stairs, quickly passing the second third and fourth floors.

Eventually they were on floor 15, and Art was starting to feel tired. He was sweating lightly and his legs were starting to feel a bit warm.

"This is taking so long!" Art complained, but continued walking right behind Doan.

"We're halfway there, you'll live." Doan laughed, and continued forwards.

They had finally arrived at the 30th floor and Art was exhausted. His legs felt like they were on fire, and he was sweating a lot. He dropped on the floor from exhaustion and had his legs and arms sprawled across the ground, as he stuck out his tongue.

"One second, I just--" Art panted, unable to finish his sentence.

After about five minutes, Art sat up against the wall.

"Let me just, catch. my. breath." Art's breathing started slowing down, but still felt tired.

Doan nodded with a smile, understanding what 30 stories of stairs would do to a child.

* * *

"Sir preparations have been made, energy is recharged and ready to go." A man wearing a very elegant type of armor, informed an omnipotent figure sitting on a throne in a kingdom, worlds apart.

"Good." The loud gruff voice spoke.

"Begin the first trial."

* * *

"Woah this place is amazing!" Art awed at the vault room. There were dozens of vaults, all lined up together and the floor was a shining blue crystal color.

They finally walked to the end of the the vault room and saw the sign.

"Vault 390000, here it is."

"Wow this looks awesome!" Art reached out to touch the handle unable to contain his excitement. The handle turned with a small automatic click, and the vault started to open. Art stepped back as the old mechanism slid across the floor, creating a slight grinding sound. He stared at the vault overjoyed once it finished opening.

"This is so cool! I got my own vault!"

Once the vault finished opening, Art stepped inside, his excitement being stopped short as it was completely empty.

Doan just laughed

"What did you expect you haven't even started work yet."

When they left, the walk down was much easier to Art. As they descended down the different floors, Doan gave him a bit advice that a harvester would know. He also let Art know he could stay with him since he didn't have a place to stay.

"I have 3 rooms, plenty for just one."

Art smiled. "Thank you!"

They finally climbed down the last set of stairs and waved goodbye again to Madam Rue as they left the bank.

Art took Doan's offer to stay with him. The next few days, he walked to the harvesting station where he was assigned different regions, in which he would have to travel in order to harvest. He was given a small sack of tools inside and was given a specially built wagon that couldn't be destroyed easily.

He walked a few miles out of the village and picked off the fruits from the gummy trees and the flowers that he was instructed to collect. The flowers were black with a bright pink stem. On another day he had simpler tasks such as collecting many stones. Other times he had to climb trees to pick off fruits. He had just finished another day of work, harvesting a few herbs which were found in the center of the Gummy Forest. Art finished he wiped his forehead, feeling slightly fatigued. He traveled back to the village with his wagon completely full, and brought it back to the harvesting station.

"Good work today Art. You work two times harder than the grown ups. You've got the stamina of an upcoming Sugar Knight boy!" The man who's name was Ryker laughed.

Art rubbed his head sheepishly, grinning at the compliment.

"Thank you Ryker. I'll see you tomorrow!" Art waved off.

The next morning, Art woke up, jumping up out of his bed excitedly and leaving the room he chose in Doan's home. He dashed down the stairs, and waved a quick goodbye at Doan who was eating breakfast.

"Payday today!" He ran off with a cheery smile out the door.

Doan chuckled and shook his head as Art left out the door. Art ran all the way to the harvesting station, which was found at the very bottom level of the village. He finally stopped, surprisingly not even out of breath as he entered the station meeting up with Ryker who was sitting behind a counter.

"Great work for your first week of work Art." Ryker said as he reached for a small bag behind the counter.

"Here's your first payment. Don't spend it all immediately and I'll see you tomorrow." Ryker laughed, as Art just nodded happily and ran off.

Art ran back all the way to Doan's house climbing up the stairs since his house was on the fifth level, one level below the castle. He barged through the door and ran towards the dining table excitedly, finally stopping next to Doan who was still in the middle of his early meal. He opened the small bag and dumped it upside down on the table as small shiny red coins fell out. They had ridges around the coins, and had engraved the symbol of Sweeten in the center. He grinned and sat down, counting the amount patiently.

"100 Treats!" Art yelled out happily, getting up from his chair.

"That's amazing lad, you got paid well for your first week." Doan complimented.

Art put back all the Treats in his small bag and nodded in agreement with Doan. He was happy with his hard earned pay. Finally he had currency. He felt more like a real citizen of Sweeten now.