A Past Memory, Departing from Nayers

On the crowded streets, Rajen wandered about aimlessly as he looked around at the various buildings and shops. Occasionally, he would pick up a few items from their counters paying either one or two force stones for them, some of them were spare clothes and even different scale maps that showed particular regions.

Rajen ran his eyes over a map he had bought that only showed the territories of the Syndona Empire. At a glance, one would see an exceedingly large landmass that seemed to reach out to other lands that weren't shown.

A large split was at the topmost edge of the paper that trailed downwards into many different fissures that showed wide lakes and oceans. Syndona had occupied the remnants of the middle and bottommost regions of this landmass. It was divided into five territories, being the Northern, Southern, Western, Eastern, and Central Lands.

"Wow, I didn't think this part of the continent would even look so bad on paper, it seems that the destruction must have been far beyond what I'd imagined..." Rajen said as he looked at it in detail, his eyes shifted towards the northern sections.

Here, the Port Town Nayers was indicated by a tiny icon marker at the far-left side close to the bottom edge of the Northern Territories. A massive crack had separated this part of the country from the Central Lands of Syndona, as if one looked closely, one would even notice a few fragmented landmasses at various areas within it.

"Hmm, so we'll have to fly over a few fragmented lands to get to the capital. I'm curious what we'll end up passing by on this trip," Rajen said with a hint of excitement on his face.

Having cleared his thoughts, Rajen then noticed that the area had grown dark, and the crowd was slowly beginning to disappear from the streets. He spoke with a slight amount of anticipation, "I better find an inn soon,"

Upon saying this, Rajen then walked about the streets towards the town's center. Eventually, he saw an inn in the distance, but as he was making his way over to it, he stumbled upon an interesting scene.

It was a view of a child who was shopping with her mother in a joyful mood, pointing towards various things as she spoke cutely.

"Mother, I want this! Can I have it?" The adorable little girl said while looking at her mother with her large watery round eyes. Her small finger pointed towards a strange fruit on a merchant's display shelf.

"You like this, okay, mom will get it for you," A 30-year-old female said as she lovingly rubbed her daughter's head, she then began to bargain with the excited and greedy looking merchant.

As Rajen saw this scene, he was suddenly struck into a daze as his mind faded away into an old memory.

It was a dark place, an icy corner filled with dirt and trash as if it hadn't been clean in years. There were stains everywhere from suspicious liquids, and even fly's buzzed-about in joy as if they found their origin grounds.

If one looked closely, they would see a green-haired child that was just seven years old. He wore dirty, torn up clothing with countless bruises on the surface of his skin, and his eyes were lifeless and empty. No one knows how long he sat there; no one even knows where he came from, but the people walking by did not care as the went along their daily lives, treating him as if he was just air.

Suddenly, in front of this green-haired child stood an elderly man. He crouched, bending his already bent back, even further creating cracking noises as he stretched out one of his hands with a fresh apple. When the noises sound from his back, the old man smiled as he spoke in a self-mocking tone, "Ah, the price one pays with age..."

Looking at him closely, one would notice that he had a bald head covered with wrappings, dressed in simple robes. He had sharp eyes with wrinkles at the corners as his pupils carried a hint of profoundness as he looked at the child in front of him with a gentle gaze and spoke, "Little one, are you hungry?"

The child looked towards the old man without a change in his expression, as if life itself had no meaning.

"Come on now, don't be like that! Here, I'll leave it for you to eat," The old man said as he placed the apple in the child's hand.

The child looks at the old man and considered for a bit before taking a bite of the apple. With a large chomping sound, the child's eyes brightened, and as if he didn't eat anything for a very long time, the child ate the apple with glee quickly finishing it.

"Good-Good! You see, it isn't too hard now, is it? Here, have another one," The old man said with a smile as he revealed his a few missing sets of teeth, he placed another fresh apple in the child's hand.

As the child looked at the apple in his hand, tears fell from his eyes as the world around him that seemed dark, gained a bit of color.

Suddenly, Rajen had awoken from his unconscious state to see that the family had long since left, he then smiled at himself as he shook his head and continued onwards to the inn.

******

As dawn came upon Nayers, its beaming rays shone across the bustling streets of the morning hours. Currently, at the sky port, there were a lot of people gathered boarding into different airships.

One ship stood out amongst the rest, floating above the ground for a dozen meters. It had a length of 250 meters and height approaching 100 meters, with strange glowing runes carved upon its black sails. Its railing made of a rare metal that had different kinds of bright gems socketed in certain sections. The symbol of the sun behind a sword was etched on the surface of the ship signifying the Adventurer Union's property.

At this time, a large group of powerful-looking individuals made their way upon this airship in a slightly disorganized manner.

"Don't push everyone will get their turn!" A bulky looking man dressed in a strange sailor attire yelled.

"Wow, this ship is amazing! The Adventurer Union is quite the influence no matter which branch you go," A random wanderer said in the line to board the ship.

Rajen, who stood nearby in the line, looked at the ship in surprise as he muttered softly, "It truly is a sight worth seeing..."

After boarding the ship, Rajen made his way to the central cabin area only to see lots of runic equipment with floating spheres along with chairs and tables aligned in an ordered fashion. A large platform was also within the central area where a few influential individuals where calmly gathering.

After walking around for a while, he looked at the boarding pass he got from the registrar and found his seat number.

"Finally found it," Rajen said as he took his seat and once more looked around the ship, pondering for a while, he spoke once more, "I'm guessing that the Mage Union made this as well."

"Right you are! It is one of their latest models for sky voyage," A sweet and familiar-sounding voice said from behind him.

Hearing this voice, Rajen turned around to see the red-haired girl and her brother seated by her side.

"Is that so? You sure know a lot about these things. Allow me to introduce myself; I am called Rajen. It's a pleasure to meet you once more," Rajen said while smiling.

"Mine is Reya, and this is my brother, Gust. It is also a pleasure to meet you, Rajen," Reya said with a bright smile on her beautiful face, a few individuals seated far away couldn't help but fall into a daze due to her beauty.

Rajen, who was at the target of the smile, felt an even more overwhelming pressure. However, he soon calmed his thoughts as he noticed the girl's brother Gust gazing at him.

Gust looked at Rajen with a sharp gaze, moving his sights at the wrapped-up sword on his back as he spoke, "You seem to be a swordsman, are you also headed to the Adventurer Union's Trial in the capital?"

Rajen, hearing this responded, "Yup, I've always wanted to see what it's like to travel the world and seek the unknowns."

Gust looked at him with a strange glint in his eye as he responded, "Oh, the spirit of a wanderer."

"Are you from nearby?" Reya asked with a curious vision as she looked at Rajen.

"No, I'm from a village somewhere beyond the boundaries of the Northern Territory. A place in the distant suburbs," Rajen vaguely replied as he looked towards Reya.

"Beyond the Northern Territory, in that region... that's quite far. We are from the Central City of Blaze in the Northern Territory, and even from there it took us a while to get here, how did you arrive here so quickly?" Reya asked with a puzzled gaze.

"Haha! Let's just say I left quite early," Rajen said as he wiped the sweat from his face, he quickly changed the subject, "The Central City of Blaze, I've never been there before, I've only heard of it through tales. Hmm, you guys are planning to be Adventurers as well?"

Gust looked at Rajen with an in-depth look in his eyes as he responded, "It was a dream from as early as our childhood. My sister and I were always together, as our parents were never around. They went missing shortly after raising us, and ever since then, we had decided that one day we would go out into the world to find them. That's..."

Gust was about to say more, but suddenly, Reya interrupted him, finishing his words with a bright and serene smile on her face, "That's why we figured joining the Adventures Union will make our task much easier,"

Rajen, hearing this, had a bright ray flash in his eyes as he responded casually, "Searching for one's family, eh… that's pretty noble of you."

Reya asked as she tried to pry into his goals, "What about you? Why are you joining the Adventures Union?"

Rajen was surprised for a moment; he was about to respond to her question, but there was an interruption.

"Attention, everyone!" A loud voice suddenly said as it resounded throughout the entire ship.

Rajen and the others quickly looked towards the central platform of the ship cabin. A man dressed in a very iconic uniform stood at its center, surrounding him were four other individuals in a similar attire along with another group wearing similar but less prominent garments.

"Now that you are all at attention, we can begin our journey to the Syndona Empire's capital," A man who stood at the center of the group informed.

"My name is Kraze, and I am the Sky Captain of this ship. The journey will be filled with countless dangers, and so I hope everyone will be prepared for the travels across the cloud sea," As he said this, he stepped back, as a slouchy looking man with messy hair with a scar on the side of his face walked out.

He wore only a cotton-like shirt and large trousers, with both of his wrists wrapped in black wrappings with a sword placed by his side, an emblem with a sun over a mountain was hung over his left shoulder, stopping at his chest. He looked towards all the individuals gathered in the room with a lazy gaze, the scar on the left side of his face and unruly hair, giving him an intimidating vibe.

He spoke to the crowd with a sneering smile, "This journey is not going to be like normal ones because today is special, as the very moment you set foot on this ship is the very start of the Adventurers Pre-Examination."

"What?" The individuals exclaimed in shock, as the ship quickly made its way from the airport to sky, soon after vanishing across the endless horizon.