2 Sin Sinclair (1)

1620, twenty years after three certain someones appeared in the range of the Morningstar planetary constellation weapon. In this time, big changes happened in the world of the seven planets.

The biggest one was the construction of the Teleportation Transportation System called TTS. On one hand, it allowed people to safely travel from one planet to another, on the other hand, it created a bunch of problems as well.

The main problem was that the big powers started wars for the portal stones. If you controlled two portal stones, you could easily travel from one to another. Of course, you still had to provide the necessary energy for the teleportation.

Many Kingdoms and other organizations were involved in these so-called Portal Stone Wars, leading to bloodbaths and murder in many cases. Even the ordinary citizens weren't excepted from this.

As an aftermath of the wars, the population reduced by 20% in the first years but lately, the death and birth rates managed to find an equilibrium. The weak were already dead and those, who survived, knew now how to keep their lives in this turbulent era.

Sin Sinclair and his mother Sylvanna were part of this last group. Sin was born in 1620 and turned recently seven years old. He had jade green eyes and red hair that made his head sometimes look as if it were on fire.

Sylvanna looked totally different. She was in her mid-thirties and had a tidy appearance. Her eyes were hazelnut brown. Her long black hair was in form of an elegant looking bun because it was easier to do her job as a waitress in the village's best tavern with that kind of hairstyle.

Sylvanna was a single mom. She never talked about her husband and like that Sin had no idea who or where his dad was. For him, this was no problem at all. He had his mom, the other villagers and his best friend Katy, who was the daughter of the village's mayor.

Sin moved to the front door and grabbed his shoes, when his mother asked, "Where do you plan to go Sin?"

"Just to the market mom. You don't have to worry about me. Katy and I go together." Sin couldn't stop himself from showing his mom an annoyed expression. He was already seven years old after all.

Going to the market in a small village wouldn't be dangerous, was what he thought, but like all seven-year-old boys, he never saw the dangers of his undertakings.

"Sin, I know you can look after yourself but today is special. The traveling merchants are in town and you know that some of them act a little strange from time to time."

Sin's mom was right to be worried about her son. Sometimes the merchants, who visited the village, were a little over the top. They treated the woman poorly, and it wasn't unheard of that a maid was pregnant after they left again.

They simply didn't fear to build a bad reputation, because they always left again shortly after their arrival. Often you wouldn't see the same merchant for five years again, creating a situation, where the public opinion didn't matter to them that much. Of course, only the minority were bad people, but one bad person was enough to make parents worry about their children.

Sin ran out of the house, waved his hand to his mother and shouted, "See you later mom!" Before his mother could even answer, he was already out of her view.

Sylvanna left all alone shook her head and helplessly said, "Tsss..., this boy..., one day he will miss me, and then I won't be there.",

Five minutes later, Sin waited at the market place's fountain for his friend Katy. Every time the merchants came, was special for them. The otherwise boring village turned lively during these moments, and interesting things were bound to happen.

Finally, Katy arrived. With a red face from running, she came to a stop in front of Sin.

"Sorry that I am late, but my father had some special guests, and so I couldn't leave directly."

As the mayor's daughter every time someone special arrived, she had to be there to pay respect to that person.

"No problem I am not waiting for long. More important, who came this time?" Sin was curious. Sometimes really high standing people moved through the village, once, for example, a prince, who was sixteenth in the line of succession.

To be fair, that guy was the most famous person, who ever visited their village. Often the visitors were only high standing personals from the military, government officials or rich company owners.

These guys came through because the village lay in a mountain pass, which was a shortcut from the kingdom's capital to an important military base.

"It was a man from the Adventurer Guild!", answered Katy with a smug expression. It was rare that someone from the Guild came by, turning this in even more exciting news for the two children.

The Adventurer Guild was a special existence after all. They had enough might to confront even a whole kingdom by themselves and many nobles sent their children into the Adventurers Academy.

Only the best managed to finish their three years there. Being a graduate meant not only that you gained a high status in every kingdom but that you were extremely strong as well.

Of course, they had to go through a hellish training before they were allowed to call themselves adventurers.

All adventurers had a rank that determined how much influence they had inside the guild and how strong they were. That was one of the reasons why nobles liked to send their children for their education to the academy. Every graduate, a kingdom had, meant more influence over the movements of the adventurers guild.

The total number of adventurer ranks were seven, rank 1 being the lowest and 7 the highest.

The general population had only information about the ranks 1 to 3. Adventurers of rank 1 and 2 weren't real adventurers yet.

They were forbidden from using the adventurer title for themselves. In general, they got referred to as adventurer apprentices or trainees. After completing their third year at the academy and becoming a rank 3, they finally joined the official ranks of adventurers.

"So..., do you know which rank he was?", asked Sin in excitement.

"Hehe," Katy laughed, "yeah I know! He is rank 5!!!"

Sin made big eyes. A rank 5 adventurer was really strong and they never had the luck to see one before.

"Katy, you have to bring me to see him! They say rank 5 adventurers can with only a single hit of their fists fell a tree!", pleaded Sin.

Katy thought quickly about it and then nodded.

She answered with uncertainty in her voice, "But Sin, that guy was really really really scary. We can't go near him! You have to watch from some distance, okay?" Without her father going near someone, who could kill her with the flick of his hand, made her frightened but she didn't want to look like a scaredy-cat in front of Sin.

"He stays at the tavern, where your mom works. But I think before going there, he wanted to go to a traveling merchant, who sells weapons... ."

From where they stood, they could see a signboard, which depicted a crossed sword and ax. They started walking in that direction and after a short time, had a free view of the weapon merchant's carriage.

In front of it stood a tall bald-headed man with a strong physique. A red cloak that reached nearly the ground covered his broad shoulders and a black scale armor his well-trained body. This had to be the adventurer.

Next to that man stood the merchant. He wore normal travelers clothes and was relatively better dressed than the general public. Even more than his clothes showed his bulging stomach that this man was wealthy. He had to be the fattest person Sin ever saw in his whole life.

Sin said excitedly, jumping up and down next to his best friend, "Katy, I have to see the emblem myself! I have to get closer to them! How often will I have the chance to see a rank 5 emblem in my entire life?!?"

Pleading Katie tried to stop Sin from his actions.

"Sin, please not. That man frightens me, look he has such a long knife in his hand. Only seeing how he holds it sends cold shivers down my spine."

Sin looked uncertainly into her eyes. Then he firmed his resolve and said, "You stay here! I will try to creep up on him."

Contrary to his words Sin walked openly over the marketplace, but not to the merchant selling the weapons, but the one on his right side. That merchant sold all kind of glassware. In front of his carriage, the glass was piled up in unstable constructs.

These, as a result, formed glass towers were a good hiding place to watch the bald-headed man from near proximity. Sin moved to an especially unstable tower, which happened to be the optimal spot to take a look at the badge.

Just as he looked up, trying to take a sneak peek at him. The adventurer turned his head in Sin's direction. Sin, shocked from the sudden exposure, flinched and raised his hands in front of his mouth. The problem was that in his shock, he accidentally touched with his finger the glass in front of him. The already unstable construction first shook from left to right and then slammed with a loud bang on the ground.

"Shit!!!", was the only thing he could cry.

Fast like a tiger attacking its prey, a furious man with short white hair appeared.

He pointed his finger against Sin's chest and shouted, "You, damn scum. Trying to steal my glassware when I leave to grab a bite. I knew something like this was going to happen!"

The man stopped to draw a deep breath. His face was red from anger and the veins at his temples were clearly visible pulsating. The man continued with his tirade.

"It's always the same with you villager scums! I turn away for a second and you steal my precious things."

The man had to stop to take another breath. Gasping he kept going, "Buuut, not today! I stacked my products so that they fall down if someone tries to pull something out!" Proud of himself the man started laughing during his last words. What he didn't notice was that his loud ranting pulled many villagers over to his carriage. They heard him, calling them 'villager scums' and 'thieves' and they weren't happy with it.

Sin was totally taken by surprise! Since when did he try to steal something from this guy. What should a seven-year-old boy even do with glassware? Not knowing what he should say at first, he kept silent, but now he thought what his mother would have expected from him and said, "I am sorry Mister. I didn't do it on purpose, I-"

The man still angry interrupted Sin and said ironically, "You didn't do it on purpose? Huuuhhh...?!? You wanna say, you just accidentally tried to steal my stuff and broke it while you were at it? Okay if it is like that then let's just forget it."

Sin was relieved, to his surprise, the man excepted his apology without further ado. Turning away, he wanted to go to Katy and ask her, if she could call his mom for him.

The merchant never expected Sin to not understand the irony in his words and grew even angrier. "First you steal and now you want to flee?"

Faster than anyone could react the man grabbed a knife from his belt and stabbed it straight at Sin's face. Blood flew high in the air and Sin fell to the ground not moving. The surrounding spectators were shocked.

They all knew Sin, and that he was not a thief. But before anyone managed to intervene things were already going overboard. In all honesty, they might have moved faster but they never expected, someone would attack a child in open-public from one moment to the next. This merchant was simply a complete psychopath!

Sin lying on the floor felt a strong heat coming from his right eye. He opened them and to his surprise, he noticed that only one of his eyelids followed the command. Something wet flowed into his now opened eye, covering his vision before he managed to see anything.

Then overtaken by the pain, he turned unconscious, a bright green light calling out to him, promising safety and protection.