The Vanished man

Leaving Aratt's house, Archie made his way from the small alleys of Rinne, going to the town square, revealing an open space full of activity.

Archie had decided to come visit the town square first, because despite how the Angran—Aratt behaved in front of him,the rat had many enemies and to escape any immediate threat too much for him alone to handle, he needed to scope out all escape routes and hiding places.

Archie hadn't been in the town of Rinne himself for long, coming here a couple of years ago to seek refuge, and hence wasn't that familiar with the roads and streets of the city.

In these 2 years, Archie had to struggle to get himself a place in this city, and working as an explorer, he hadn't spent much time inside the capital. During his first few months was when he met the cunning and pompous Angran and since then has been responsible for getting Archie supplies for his exploration.

Making his way from the southern entrance of the town square, Archie looked to the left as several Humans and Angrans had opened several shops and stalls selling fruits and vegetables or necessities. The town square was the main hub for markets in the city and was an essential part of the life of Rinneans.

Looking ahead to the center, he saw a small group of people looking like they were watching something entertaining, as could be seen from their mocking expression.

As he approached the gathering, he noticed they were gazing at six persons sitting in the center of the path, their looks unimpressed. The oddest thing about the group was that they were carrying massive placards with the phrase "Church of Rot Supremacy" printed in large symbols.

[The Church of Rot], called by the Rotting ones was a newly risen religion first seen in the country of Ishenner.

Tapping at the shoulder of the person in front of himself, Archie asked,"Excuse me, what's happening here?"

The person revealed to be a human of small stature and brown hair, looked confused at first and then pointed to the clique of Immortals, mockingly saying,"It's those nasty Rotted shouting how their kind will reign supreme and take over the world."

Hearing the taunt, one of the Decayed sitting near the edge seemed angry and screamed in a shrill voice,"Say what you want meatbag, but in the end all of you will die, leaving only us as the supreme masters!"

Hearing the proclamation only caused laughter to erupt from the gazing crowd, which further caused the small clique to huff in anger. Seeing the expressions of the Rotting ones, several quick-witted people backed away knowing if they lost control over themselves, the city guards would be too late to protect some of them.

Yet, just as it looked like they were about to erupt in anger, one of them looked somewhere with a strange expression and started instructing his small group to calm down and move somewhere else.

Archie followed the Putrid gaze of the fellow and looked to the corner, seeing a man wearing a trench coat covering till below his knees and a hat covering most of his scalp.

Everything about the man screamed suspicious, yet no one was looking at the man; even Archie had to strain his eyes to keep the man in his sight, yet just as he wanted to get closer to take a proper look, he heard a sound of something falling behind him.

As he looked at his back, he saw a kid had dropped a vase he was carrying and was being scolded by an older Angran, shaking his head, he tried to continue towards the suspicious man yet when he looked back there was no one at that place, the corner deserted as if no one was even there.

Acting as if nothing had happened, Archie made his way forward and stood in front of a fruit stall near the corner. Taking a closer look at the fruits, he finally bought some and made his way to the southern entrance of the townsquare.

Moving onwards and sitting on a bench some distance away he looked like a normal citizen who was only just there to eat something for lunch, yet deep inside he was thinking about the vanished man.

Before coming to Atharia and even after moving to this country, he had heard and seen several people with strange supernatural or far-above-human prowess, so strong that even daemons couldn't compare.

Yet they were either too elusive or too dangerous to ever approach, and Archie, only looking to survive before, had tried to never cross paths with any of them.

However, it seemed like they were strangely affiliated with the Rotting ones and He could encounter with them on the job given by Aratt.

If they met each other, Archie wasn't sure what the outcome would be, with chances of his death being very high, as even with all the experience he had being an explorer and his life before that, he was sure they'd be much stronger with strange powers.

Finishing the fruits, he continued walking as if nothing had happened, still a bit cautious of the vanished man, with several thoughts rushing in his head as if,'What if he had some way to go invisible, had suspected me, and is currently trailing me?'

Certainly most of it was overthinking; he was just one of the people in the crowd who coincidentally had turned his head and due to his precaution, hadn't even approached the place where the vanished man stood, yet his anxious mind caused him to continue walking, change routes, and go from some of the hidden pathways that he learnt in the time he was in the capital, knowing full well if the invisible man was following him, these measures would be useless.

Yet despite the uncertainty, he continued for half a day until finally he reached in front of a dilapidated church with the symbol of a black eye in which instead of the iris and pupil was a blue and green planet.

Opening the door slowly, it revealed no presence of anyone alive like how it always was. Walking further, broken or empty rooms appeared in his eyes until he reached the farthest room where in the corner a carpet was laid, removing the carpet disclosed what appeared to be a hidden entrance to a basement.

The hidden entrance wasn't always hidden, Archie had just made it like that because of his precautiousness.

Entering the basement what entered his sight was a clean and proper room. Going to the bed without much thought he just changed his clothes and went to sleep tired from all the stress he had created for himself.

For the next two days he acted like nothing had happened and continued his scouting of the town square from the different entrances and looking for all the escape routes available.

Fortunately, the vanished man didn't appear even once after that day around the town square. As the tension slowly disappeared from the body of Archie, the time to meet Aratt drew near.

Waiting near the corner of the square, he sat on an empty bench, he waited with some fruits in his hands, nibbling on them continuing to look in the crowds.

Watching the people moving in the town square was a calming experience for Archie, he hadn't had much moments like these since so many years, but now his life was somewhat stable compared to before he entered this country.

As he continued watching, he noticed an Angran making his way from the crowd, wearing his usual suit and walking with an undisguised arrogance staring at the rest of the crowd, his glare much more prominent when gazing at the rotting ones.

Looking around for a bit, he noticed a black haired youth sitting with some fruits in his hand and swaggered over to the bench.

Looking left and right for a bit, he huddled with the young human and huffed,"Breathing the same air as those putrid rottens feels nauseating, almost feels like I will become one of them too one of these days!"

Archie could only shake his head at the Angran's prejudice over the decayed and retort,"Why curse them so much, they're already suffering enough by being given the so called blessing of immortality and don't forget you were the one who used to sell to them until last year."

The Angran wouldn't be convinced from such a fact and could only snort derisively saying,"So what if they're suffering? They should be kept away from normal people like us, lest they start infecting us too and I stopped selling them anything from half a year ago."

Archie had no energy to retort, despite knowing that the rot wasn't known to be infective and claimed people without any relation or reason, it was all random and no one could understand why anyone starts becoming one of them despite their kind existing since 100s of years ago.

Sighing once, Archie tried to bring the talk to what was more important right now as he couldn't change the mind of the ratman anyway,"Nothing we can do about them anyway,so why don't you tell me what your request was."

Nodding his head, the Angran stood up and started making his way to the north of the townsquare, where a shop selling expensive looking vases and other luxurious looking things were being sold.

After making small talk with the owner, they went inside and climbed upward to the attic where a small window was present that showed the entire view of the town square.

Pointing to the fountain,the rat snarled and squeaked angrily,"My headache for the past few days has been nothing but those Rotted cult's miscreants, they've caused me loss of sleep for so many days, Mr. Archie, I'd be nothing but in your debt if you could find some way to deal with them."