Chapter 9: Tier 3 Official

Chapter 9: Tier 3 Official

A human's life is 100 years long. It could be as long as a 2-hour-long boring drama while it can also be as short as a blink. The adventure, the process is sometimes more important than the end of the drama or the blink. Sometimes memories made along the way can be sweeter than the ending we strive for.

These words spoken by the man had a great impact, not only on the people but on nature itself. Tides rose, thunderstorms crackled as the heavens above the heads of these puny humans roared.

The whole world was acknowledging. This man had truly become what he dreamt for. The happily ever after he dreamt for looked even more beautiful after all those failures.

He had truly become... The Hero of the Ages, and the Liberator of Seas. The Man Who Pursued Freedom the Most, the personification of freedom itself.

He had truly become the Sea Hero. And the happy ending was right in front of him, beckoning at him. This was the End."

Sera finally finished narrating the book. Though the Advent of Sea Hero was considered as nothing more than a mere fairy tale, it had some philosophical statements with deep meanings. Though these two children couldn't comprehend them properly, they were pretending to be great scholars who could understand every single philosophical meaning hidden within those sentences.

Indeed it was funny to see those two talk to each other in words filled with riddles and symbolic meanings.

"Well, is that 'wall' of the story?"

"Indeed, 'raise honey and berries.'" The wall referred to a dead end or the end of this book, while "raise honey and berries" was slang used to refer to the happy moment when something ended.

"Sis, why isn't mom back yet?" Shiro suddenly asked, to which Sera shrugged her shoulders. The sun had already sunk, but Loyola still hadn't returned home.

'That feeling... Could it be...' Shiro recalled that ominous feeling. He wanted to shrug it off, as a little more mature than the normal kids or at least wanted to be, he was just a kid after all. At an age where he couldn't even identify all the emotions within him properly.

But right now the ominous feeling just increased.

Mom... Sigh, I have a sudden urge to see her.

His lips slightly trembled.

"Are you worried?" Sera quickly noticed that something wasn't right with Shiro. Shiro, who heard this question, paused before nodding subtly.

At that second, Sera suddenly grabbed his head. Alarmed, Shiro wanted to roll over as if dodging an unexpected attack but the warmth of her skin...

Mm... It feels good... It feels like home...

Sera then proceeded to place his head on her lap. Her lips parted as a beautiful voice slowly enveloped the room.

This was the lullaby that their mom often sang. Hearing this, Shiro felt as though he was in the embrace of his mother. In the embrace of his mother, sticking closely to her, afraid that the Ghosts in his dreams would take him away.

His eyes slowly closed...

. . .

The sound of birds chirping brightened the environment as the sun hung high in the sky.

A hint of sunlight seeped into the room. Shiro's eyes twitched as he abruptly woke up gasping for air.

"Huff! Huff!"

Cold sweat was all over his body, and his heartbeat acceleration was at the peak. A sense of complete isolation and loneliness was haunting him.

Sister!

Mother!

Both... both of them had left him!

He was the loneliest one alive! Tears slowly fell down his eyes.

"Mother!" Shiro finally managed to squeeze these words out. Was that ominous feeling true?

However, this was the second his eyes fell onto his sleeping sister. Beside Sera was Loyola sleeping with an exhausted complexion.

Haa...

A wave.. No! A tsunami of relief brushed past Shiro.

Indeed... It was just a funny feeling... Nothing else...

. . .

It seemed as though there weren't any major changes in the village. However, within, on Concealment a storm was already brewing.

All the higher-ups in charge of this particular area couldn't sleep at night because of one piece of information.

Kervan, a great 3rd-tier official of the Sea Federation, was going to visit this place. This was the official in charge of funds and taxes. He'd be the one who gave a certain amount of funds to understand developed areas and would also keep the track record of taxes afterward.

Implementing taxes from underdeveloped areas would be pure foolishness. Developing them with certain funds and then implementing taxes would be a Win-win situation. One could also say that this was an investment.

But the local higher-ups of this village were rotten to the core. All those funds went into their own pockets, while they forced the inhabitants of that village to pay taxes without even creating job opportunities or developing the area.

These individuals were not only lazy but also had poor decision-making skills.

But the fact that a Tier 3 official was going to visit was akin to setting the date of their execution.

"So what the hell should we do now?"

An official with dark circles beneath his eyes asked.

"Whose idea was it? I think we should make that person a scapegoat." The room suddenly became silent.

"Are you stupid!!!" All of them roared as they looked at the foolish individual. Making a scapegoat would make the situation even worse.

The official who was going to visit would be a tier 3 official. Not a fool, nor a donkey, definitely not someone with maggot-filled brains like these individuals.

"Sigh.. There's only one thing that we can do now. Apologize and accept our punishment. But before that, we should at least try to whip out our money and develop this area to some extent. Maybe this way our punishment will be lightened." Hiding the trace of corruption was simply impossible.

The room once again became quiet as these local officials started contemplating.

Indeed, as the saying went... Life was unpredictable.