15 Diary 15: Covering Wounds
Joey Harlan is a six years old boy who always waits for any explorer to accept his quest. The young boy only provides fifty sheels for the quest. Due to the low rewards, no one accepted the boy's quest. Hansel knew this well, hence he gives the quest to the newbie Min Soo and his guardian David King.
Joey looks up toward Min Soo whose empathizes with the boy's story. Hansel told the two gentlemen that Joey lost his grandfather due to natural occurrences, his grandfather wanted to give the young boy his treasure relic. However, the old man lost his life when a typhoon hits a certain town where his grandfather stays for the meantime.
His body was not found, but the typhoon power is so vicious that it annihilates the whole city to smithereens. It's a small city on the corner named Nadhmill, dominates by farmers and ranches. The city is now only ruins, nothing stays in that ruins but only corpses of humans and animals loitering around the ruins.
Joey's parents are quite neglectful, they're not exactly the best parental figure for Joey. They're often outside the town for their government jobs and tend to leave their son to the caretaker's job. However, the caretaker does her job poorly to the point that Joel's grow to only skin and bones.
Min Soo feels like he cheats by knowing the young boy's past, but the fact that he's so thin and dirty tells how horrible his current household is.
"My money is not that much, but I want to find my grandfather relics before I die," he said it normally "I am so hungry, my caretaker never comes home, I don't have more money left".
He stumbles on the ground, hunger took over his senses as the boy gasps in pain. David instinctively grabs the boy and orders a meal for the poor lad. Min Soo's eyes gaze upon the thin-looking boy, he slurps the soup hungrily at the bar table.
Seeing how he couldn't manage to gain his nutrients despite being the son of government officials sickens Min Soo's thought.
"David, can we help him find his grandfather's relics?" Min Soo asks the blonde-haired man who sits next to the hungry boy.
"Want me to be honest with you?" David sighs. "It might say D-ranked quest, but the reason for the D-rank is the small wages".
Min Soo doesn't seem to catch what David means, therefore David clarifies once more what he meant.
"Nadhmill Ruins is pretty dangerous for a newbie explorer, not to mention the small wages doesn't cover the difficulties we're going-".
"But isn't our quest is to find the relic in the ruins where his father died? That's the only objective right? I don't see the difficulties" Min Soo replies annoyed.
Min Soo's determination to help the young boy is solid, it doesn't matter the wages as long as the boy can find his only warmth in his dusty household. Seeing the determined Min Soo, David can only follow the young man's wishes. David recommends traveling by foot to reduce the cost, and it's not that far off from the Arachnosia country.
It will take around four hours travel by foot, hearing David's explanation about the cost and travel expenses scares him but he won't go back to his word. Min Soo has to help the young boy to get the relics. Joey shows the picture of the relic, it's a photo of his grandfather wearing the relic around his neck.
It appears to be a tear-shaped relic, the clear blue color reflects the color of the sky. His grandfather uses the relic as a pendant. The handsome blonde man offers his horses for them to use for exploration. The blonde-haired man opens the map he had in his back pocket, showing the map of Santus Luminera.
According to the map, Nadhmill City is on the west side of Arachnosia city. The two of them will have to bypass the Stillmine Mines and headed west along the way. It will surely be a long journey but hopefully, nothing bad happens in their journey.
* * *
As expected, traveling by foot tires the idol's more. His fatigue is unbearable and the exhaustion in his voice becomes more apparent. Min Soo stops on his tracks after an hour of traveling, they already have tents prepared for this occasion. David somehow has a magical suitcase that can contain two sets of tents.
David told him that the suitcase is quite expensive, it's available to buy in Explorer Guild. He told the Idol explicitly that with the current money Min Soo had, he won't have the chance to buy the suitcase. Because the suitcase is expensive and hard to find, not only explorers but lots of people use the suitcases due to the efficiency.
Min Soo had to agree with David's opinion, he's in no position to buy such a luxurious item for now. All he had to do is to survive with what he had, he can't forever depend on David's kindness. The magical tents that appeared as soon as David opened the suitcase made the Idol think of purchasing the suitcase for his home rather than find a place to lease.
As the Idol pondering his decision whilst sitting outside his tent, David spoke out of the blue.
"I know what you're thinking, but overusing the suitcase will only make the suitcase's utility lifespan lower, I suggest not to use your suitcase as your home" he sighs. "Finding a home is your second objective after getting enough sheels to purchase one".
"Ah, you got me there" Min Soo chuckles. 'I want to save cost if I can".
The idol pouts as the sky slowly turns darker, the fatigue ness starts to creep into his eyes. Exhaustion soon overcame his senses to stay awake, he was thinking to watch the clear stars in a foreign world. Surely, the stars would look different here compared to his hometown Seoul. David stands behind him, his navy eyes latched onto the young man's head.
The blonde-haired man sits next to him as he asks the blunt question that Min Soo doesn't expect.
"What happened with your hair? I see a coin-shaped bald-".
"The sky is beautiful, isn't it?" Min Soo cuts his question, knowing what's the continuation of David's question.
David exhales as he looks up, his navy eyes, however, still glancing at the saddened expression of Min Soo's expression. His glowing bronze eyes slowly become glassy, tears are swelling the moment David asks that question.
"Min Soo?" David is uncertain about what happened to Min Soo as his tears slowly fall down.
"I'm sorry, I'm fine" the Idol stutters heavily.
Not knowing that the Idol is in turmoil that the blonde-haired man notices the scalp on his hair. His confidence becomes paper-thin as soon as someone notices the weakness he had. In the end, nothing about him ever changed; the only thing that changed is that he's good at covering his insecurity.
