Unexpected Encounter

While eating their ice creams, each costing 1 gold coin, they climbed the stone stairs on the side of the rocky hill.

Since Ash had no gold coins at all and only had gemstones, Maya paid for their ice creams.

Ash talked about his experience finding a ship with a large chest full of gold coins inside.

Maya laughed when she heard that the crowbar Ash used broke while trying to open the chest. "That was very lucky," she said, amid her laughter, "It didn't bite your hands."

Frowning, Ash challenged her, "You have to help me solve the mystery of that chest later."

"Hahaha, sure," said Maya with a wide smile. "But later, you have to share the gold coins with me."

"Okay, deal," said Ash without much thought. The gold coins inside the chest were too many anyway.

On their stroll to the upper level of the city, many people outside their homes greeted them. These people were varied, consisting of adults, the elderly, and children running up and down the stairs. Ash and Maya tried to return their greetings. They were very friendly, which made Ash and Maya even more astonished by the city's atmosphere, which was very different from other places in the Finding Objects game.

There was one more thing that made them more surprised. There were many pets like dogs and cats also in that place. Jagu chased the cats and dogs, with his tail wagging excitedly. Of course, the dogs and cats ran away in fear seeing Jagu.

The two of them walked until they reached a cave at the top of a hill. On that hill, there were three caves, each about two meters high. Ash didn't know which cave was where John was, so he tried knocking on the door of the first cave.

The sturdy door opened, and an old woman came out of the house. "Yes, what is it?" she said.

Seeing Ash and Maya, who were clearly not locals, she asked, "What do you need? Who are you?"

Ash replied, "Excuse me, ma'am, is there someone named John here?"

The woman looked at Maya and Ash from head to toe, then said, "John is at the last door over there."

"Oh, okay. Thank you, ma'am, for the information," said Ash.

"You're welcome," replied the woman before closing her door.

They walked to the last door and knocked on it. Shortly after, a man's voice came from inside the house. "Yes, who is it?" the man said.

Ash shouted from outside the door, "Is there someone named John here?"

A fifty-year-old man came out of the door. He wore a light blue shirt and jeans, also well-built despite his age. His face was clean and well-maintained, with no beard or mustache, chestnut brown hair was neatly combed back, with a few white hairs scattered throughout, and his eyes were brown.

The man looked at Ash and Maya, then at Jagu, and asked, "Are you new in this city?"

"Yes, sir. Are you John?" asked Ash.

"Yes, that's me. What do you need?" replied the man.

Ash paused for a moment, then took out the Captain's Diary from his inventory. "Do you perhaps recognize the man who wrote this diary?" he asked, handing the book over.

The man looked at Ash with a confused expression, then took the diary. He started flipping through the pages and reading briefly. Suddenly, his eyes lit up, and he said, "Oh, I know this person. This must be Michael."

The man then said, "Come in," and invited them into his house. Ash, Maya, and Jagu entered the house.

The house was simple, with stone walls and plain wooden furniture. Inside, there was only a table, wooden chairs, and a bookshelf full of books.

The man gestured Maya and Ash to sit on the chairs. "Would you like something to drink?" he asked.

Maya quickly replied, "Oh, don't trouble yourself," as they sat down.

The man laughed and said, "It's no trouble. We don't get guests every day."

Ash observed every detail in the room. He saw many paintings on the bookshelf and the walls before him. The paintings were portraits of people in the story. They were made with oil color and depicted several people in one painting, like a family or individual portraits.

Ash looked more closely, and the paintings resembled people he had seen in the real world on Earth.

One of the paintings was a portrait of a young woman about 17 years old with long black hair. What shocked Ash even more was that the woman looked very much like his mother.

Ash immediately asked John, who was making coffee for them, "What is your full name, John?"

Without looking at them, while stirring the coffee, John replied, "My full name is John Rush."

'No way,' Ash thought. Rush was his mother's family name, Maria Rush.

"What's going on, young man? What's with my last name? Do you know my family?" John asked as he placed the coffee on the table.

"Ash was silent, his mind racing rapidly. Could this really be Uncle John?

His mother had once told him that she had a younger brother named John who mysteriously disappeared 35 years ago. They had reported his disappearance to the police, but there was never any news about him until now. The whole family assumed that John had long been dead.

If this really was the uncle who had been assumed dead, then Ash had another family member besides his mother.

Maya asked worriedly, holding Ash's hand, "What's wrong, Ash? Are you okay?"

Ash snapped out of his thoughts and shook his head, "I'm fine."

'I need to make sure first if this is really Uncle John that my mother has been looking for,' Ash thought.

John looked at Ash and asked, "Are you sure you're okay, young man?"

Ash shook his head, "I'm really fine."

"Alright then, please drink the coffee and tell me where you come from," John said kindly.