23 Regisvall

"Who're you?"

"And why should I tell you, stranger."

"You can speak my language, are you from Regalia?"

"Don't speak that cursed name in front of me, I don't know who you are, but you're clearly not an LO. Get lost."

Kuoka scratched the back of his head, 'this guy's difficult.'

"What's an LO?"

The strange man looked up at Kuoka in confusion. "You don't know? If you're here, then I assumed you knew, everybody does. We're infamous after all."

"This is my first time in Tira, I don't know much about LO's, could you tell me?"

The man pointed a bony finger at Kuoka's mask, "take that off, then I'll tell you." Kuoka looked down at the old man and smiled, "can't you just tell me? What about me makes you so act so cautious?"

"The build of your body looks similar to someone else that I am cautious of. Show me your face, if you're such a harmless person, then that should be no problem right?"

"Haha... I'm sorry, but the sand keeps blowing into my eyes, I can't see very well." Kuoka sarcastically laughed and took a step back when the old man stood from his corner. "Take it off, we're behind a large wall. The sand could come from the side, so let's go into that pub over there, and we can talk."

'This guy's seriously difficult!'

Prior to meeting the old man, Kuoka had stolen a yellow mask from a street vendor, the mask covered the entire face, it was made for walking around in a sandstorm. Specifically for blocking sand from getting into the eyes.

Kuoka walked into the pub, several old men stared at him, some were burly whilst some were skinny. Their ribs showing from their backs, you could clearly see the shape of their skeletons.

'This atmosphere is nice.' Kuoka sat down at a corner table, "now that thing off."

'Lucky for me, this old guy doesn't know about what this mask does.' Kuoka lifted the mask from his head, "oh, you look much different. Sorry for doubting you, I didn't want to show you my serious side, but times are tough and you don't know whenever someone is going to put a knife through the middle of your throat."

"Yeah... It's completely fine, I understand you needing to take caution."

'I'm bac- what?!'

"Excuse me for a moment. I'll be right back with you." Kuoka rose from his chair, and pushed it back under the table.

He walked to the second floor of the pub, and into the bathroom. 'What's with your face?!'

"Calm down, calm down. It's an item I found in the ruins near the front of the border earlier."

'Can you turn it off? Your face looks... so different from your usual face. It's slightly... uncomfortable.'

"Of course I can't turn it off, are you crazy? All these people are extremely difficult to handle or convince unless you show them your face, they don't trust anyone for some reason. They could tell that I'm Kuoka, the other Kuoka, just from the build of my body. I can't possibly show them my face, or they'll attack me."

'That's confusing.'

"Just understand that, if I show them my face, it's the same as that other Kuoka right? Because I am Kuoka as well. Therefore, the build of my body is also the same, they can also see it easier because of my thin clothes."

'You haven't found a change of clothes yet?'

"I could only find this appearance changing... thing, and this handy mask."

*Knock Knock*

'Shoot!'

*Click*

"I need you to follow me... what's your name?" The old man entered the bathroom with his hood down, "It's Morishita. I'm from a village that's north of here."

"Good to meet you, now follow me, Morishita."

Kuoka gently shut the door behind the 2 of them. They proceeded to walk deeper into the city.

"This is horrible... the buildings are all charred, was there a fire?"

"Since you're here, I assume that you're an escapee as well?"

"Yes, I am."

"Good job on getting all the way here, all the men I was with, all died on the way here."

"I'm sorry for your loss." Kuoka stared at the buildings as they walked by.

"Don't be, it was something we all knew to be a possibility, we wanted to escape, even if it meant that only 1 of us were going to make it."

"All the buildings are charred... run down, and most are missing chunks. What happened here?"

The old man suddenly stopped in his tracks, then continued walking. "There was a large battle here, do you want to know the whole story?"

"I would like to hear it."

9 years ago, there was a large battle that occurred over the course of a week. On the first day, it was a shock to everyone in the city. Country R suddenly changed their minds and decided to destroy Tira, they'd turned their backs on the peace treaty which was made several years prior, which was formed because neither nation could afford to continue to civil war. And thus, it was decided that a peace treaty be made.

The nation of Tira was on the brink of destruction due to the civil war, but it came to great happiness in the nation when the peace treaty was announced. People started moving back to parts where it had been controlled by forces of nation R.

The city near the border was the most prosperous, and the country slowly regained it's previous life, the population was severely cut down. But that was only a problem that could be fixed with time, many people rejoiced when the city was rebuilt, it had a rare access to the ocean, allowing for all sorts of trade, they were near the border. So trading soon began between both nations.

Just when the economy of both nations were back. Nation R decided to launch a surprise attack on the city of Regisvall. Named after it's ruler at the time. They launched barrage after barrage of boulders at the city walls, and soon crippled the wall, causing the entire front gate to collapse onto the draw bridge below.

They seemed to had planned for the front gate to crash into the drawbridge, because they dropped several long, but thin bridges onto the small moat around the city. Their soldiers rain into the city, torching everything as they went. Families were massacred, the city was burnt to the ground, but this was only the start of their ruthless 'purge' of Tira.

"This was all told to me by 1 of our older members, I'm not sure if it's entirely accurate, but he was present during the battle of Regisvall, at least he said so himself. I'm not sure if he's still at the camp, but you can talk to him if you want to know more. I got bored of his story halfway, mainly because of the way he told it."

"I'll definitely ask him then. It sounds interesting, by the way. Where are we going?"