Chapter 2

In the orphanage director's room,

The room was not very large, it had a window at the far end with a desk in front of it, there was a lamp on the right side of the table that provided reading light and some bookshelves on the left side of the room, and there was not much decoration to speak of, one of the only decorations was an expensive looking vase and flower set placed on the table.

[They said they were coming today didn't they, I don't know who wants to spend that much on a boy who can't do anything but beg, well it doesn't matter, I'm gonna be rich] were the thoughts running through the head of the woman who appeared to be the director of the orphanage.

She was smiling while daydreaming about the luxurious life she would lead after this transaction.

There was a sudden knock on the door, she went to answer the door with a tinge of annoyance barely visible on her face from being interrupted during her daydreams.

As the door opened, one of the older children from the orphanage was standing there looking fearful about whatever was to come.

"What is it?", asked the woman who was annoyed after seeing the person at the door.

"W..We ca..can't find No.13 a..any...ywhere", said the child with a pronounced stutter.

"It doesn't matter, it's just one of those snot-nosed ki..., wait say that again", said the woman who didn't appear to care at first but then seemed to remember something.

"We..we.. can't find No.13 anywhere', the child repeated.

There was a loud clapping sound as the woman's hand streaked through the hair and landed on the child's face.

"I give you one job, and you can't do it right. Go find him right now", said the woman as she walked into the room in silent anger.

Fuming angrily, she picked up the vase and threw it to the ground.

A silent figure appeared on the left side of the room, the shadow cast by the bookshelves seemed to bend themselves into a vaguely human-like shape.

The shadow that had appeared undetected in the room slightly coughed drawing the attention of the fuming woman, she immediately turned around and was surprised to see someone other than her in the room but when she realized who was in the room, she immediately started kneeling so as not to offend the shadow.

"Where is the boy?", the shadow asked in a voice that couldn't be recognized as male or female.

"I..I am sorry my lord, the boy seems to have gone missing", said the woman with a fear-laden voice.

"No matter, we will find him ourselves", said the shadow, after a slight pause he continued, "But you know too much and prove to be of no value to us"

The shadow walked away after speaking those words, the woman was relieved to come out of that ordeal unharmed, especially after hearing the words the shadow had just said but just as she was relaxing, solid-looking black spikes created using her shadow appeared behind her, and impaled the woman through her neck.

The shadow looked at the woman who was frothing at the mouth as she attempted to scream but failed due to the blood that was blocking her throat.

The shadow turned his back and walked away from the gruesome scene while saying, "At least your information was useful unlike you" in a voice that was barely audible to the dying woman.

....

In the cottage,

Zephyr woke up early due to the habit he had picked up in his years spent living at the orphanage.

He started looking around his unfamiliar surroundings which he had not explored yesterday due to the relief and excitement he felt from escaping the orphanage yesterday.

The cottage was built really weirdly compared to the ones he had seen in the village, all the walls were built with logs instead of wooden planks.

There were three rooms in the cottage, also a hall, a kitchen, and a bath.

Zephyr started walking around the house, the house wasn't decorated much except for the occasional paintings hanging from the wall, there was a round table with five chairs around it in the hall and a vase in the middle of the table.

The backside of the hall had a door that led to the kitchen, and the right and left sides opened into corridors, the left side corridor led to two rooms and the right one led to the other one and the bath, the front door of the house opened directly into the hall.

Zephyr went and knocked on the door to Thaddeus's room but there was no reply, he assumed that Thaddeus was still asleep and opened the door.

Thaddeus wasn't in the room.

The room was pretty big or bigger than any Zephyr had seen, for a place that only had a bed, a bedside table, and some bookshelves. There was also a night lamp on the table.

Zephyr went inside the room and looked at all the things that seemed so foreign to him, the light leaking through the window just above the headboard of the bed suggested it was just a little past sunrise.

He looked around the room and his gaze fell on the bookshelf, he had never seen such decorated leather bindings before, he had once snuck into the director's room but all the books there were cheap, old, and tattered paperback books.

He picked up one of the books and opened it, but the words looked very confusing to him and he was not sure about what to do so he shut the book and placed it back on the bookshelf.

After that, he continued looking around the room but he didn't find anything of interest except something that looked like Thaddeus and someone else standing next to him with glass covering it on the bedside table, he didn't understand what it was so he placed it back as he did with the book, and exited the room.

As he walked back into the hall, the door to the kitchen opened and Thaddeus walked out of it holding the food that he had been cooking, he was a little surprised to see Zephyr had woken up and was walking considering the injuries he had suffered the day before.

Thaddeus walked up to the table and put the food down, he told Zephyr to brush his teeth and come back for breakfast.

Zephyr did as he was told and came back after brushing his teeth to the most unique meal he had seen in his life, it was white bread and butter with a side of ham which was very different from the pottage he used to eat every day.

He took a careful bite of the food and tasted it, then he started stuffing his face with large bites of the delicious food he was eating for the first time in his life.

Thaddeus said nothing about Zephyr's behavior because he knew how the child had lived till now and wanted to see him happy, he also decided that he would teach Zephyr table manners later on.

After Zephyr and Thaddeus had finished eating their food, Thaddeus told the child that he needed to check his wounds and that he had to undress.

For some reason, Zephyr had a panicked face after hearing what Thaddeus said, this confused Thaddeus because he didn't know what he had said to make the boy panic.

But it looked like Zephyr had decided to trust Thaddeus since he proceeded to remove his top, Thaddeus looked over the boy's body and was astonished to see that his wounds were considerably better than yesterday, even the serious ones.

Thaddeus was astonished but he decided that it might be due to Zephyr's constitution.

"Zephyr, we'll begin your lessons in the way of the sword tomorrow since it looks like your wounds are healing faster than I thought", said Thaddeus as he thought about what the best training regime would be for Zephyr.

"Yes, Master", said Zephyr as he put on his clothes with a very relieved expression on his face for some reason.

Zephyr retreated to his room after that to get some more sleep since it seemed like he was still under the weather from his travel.