*Phwee, phwee, phwee~*
A soft whistle fluttered in the muddy streets of Banster, the wind dispersing it faster than it could travel further. The whistling continued, moving along with the person producing the sound. The boy leisurely strolled through the streets eyeing the sights here and there. Not that there was much to see other than muddy buildings, shops, taverns, and tetra screens that were periodically scattered around the city.
The wind rustled the boy's black hair parting it at the front. His boots made a deep squelching sound as he walked. The air was damp from the previous day's rain making the ground even muddier than before.
The boy finally reached his destination a small grocery store in the middle of an intersection in the road.
"Old man Graver, two kilos of the usual." The boy asked the shopkeeper, a hunched old man with cloudy eyes.
"Of course sonny," Graver replied kindly and started to pack the vegetables with his frail hands.
"Here you go, it's the usual." With a small smile, Graver handed the bag to the boy who took it with his hands which were covered in gloves.
"Thanks," Kalsen chirped, "Here's your payment too!"
After paying the necessary amount, Kalsen walked away. Both of their smiles dropped suddenly, one of them morphing into a smirk and the other morphing into a frown.
Wearing a small smirk, Kalsen took the goods that he held in his gloved hands and went on whistling in his merry way.
Now let's rewind time a bit to see what really happened between Graver and Kalsen.
'Where should I buy the week's quota of vegetables now..' Kalsen debated in his head while eyeing each store. He had been a regular to these streets for about two years now and he was a hardened veteran by now.
'Hum, hum, hum, Graver it is then,' Kalsen thought with a smile.
Heading up to the store, Kalsen greeted the old man, "Old man Graver, two kilos of the usual."
'S***, it's this kid again.' Graver cursed in his head. "Of course sonny." Nevertheless, he made sure to reply regularly.
'This time for sure,' Graver thought determinedly. He lifted his frail hand and shivered as a soft light emanated for a split second and then and then all returned to normal. Taking delicate care, he picked a carrot and added it to a scale.
*tap*
Tapping his foot softly, and on command, the weight of the scale went up. He reached for the next carrot and touched it. Struggling to hold it, Graver let it drop down softly and deftly from his hand and quickly retracted his fingers. Without missing a beat, a "carrot" had instantly taken the place of the actual carrot in his hand and he continued to struggle as if nothing had happened.
Placing the "carrot" in the basket, the weight of the scale increased once more. Graver continued to swap between real carrots and "carrots" to fill up the scale up to "2 kgs". He loaded up the rest of the vegetables and with a small smile handed the bag to the boy.
"Here you go, it's the usual."
'Alright, now there's no way that he caught that.'
His acting had been perfect this time. Making sure to sell the weight and feel of the fake vegetables that he created, taking his time to move his shriveled hands, and maintaining his kindly demeanor throughout the act.
"Thanks," Kalsen chirped, "Here's your payment too!"
Graver swiftly checked his history, taping his clunky holowatch to get to his bank history. His cloudy white eyes scanned the screen with a speed like no other.
History:
+=== 80 bronze ===+
"Hey old man! Try not to get so greedy next time, and I might think of giving you more~"
.....
.....
Graver's face morphed into a frown as he cursed Kalsen out in his mind.
'Sh***y kid, why does he always come here!'
A few moments later, Graver's face morphed back to normal and he continued his shopkeeping, waiting patiently for his next victim.
Kalsen made his way through the streets. Stopping by certain shops along the way and buying what he needed. By the time he was walking back to the clinic, his arms were filled with bags of vegetables.
Kicking the door open with his foot, Kalsen entered the clinic.
The lights were off, making it seem like the clinic was closed for the day. But Kalsen knew better. Laying down the bags, he went into the office room and flicked on the lights.
The small room was sparsely decorated. A small desk, a filing cabinet, and a small bed. On the said bed was a sleeping figure. A mop of gray hair lay on the bed while the rest of the body was covered with a cozy bedsheet.
"Oye Yetri wake up," Kalsen demanded as he felt his eye twitch from annoyance.
*zzzzz*
Without a care in the world, Yetri continued to sleep.
*haaah*
Kalsen sighed and decided to take matters into his own hands. Heading to the kitchen, he filled a bowl of water and walked back to the office room.
Unfortunately, to Kalsen's immense disappointment, that was the moment that Yetri chose to wake up.
"Kid, what time is it?" Yetri yawned as he sat up, still hugging his blanket.
"Well past noon," Kalsen stated dryly.
"Noon? Pretty early." Yetri murmured and leaned back against the wall.
"Hmm? What's the bowl for?" Yetri finally asked eyeing the bowl that Kalsen was clutching in his hands.
"It's to help you wake up." Kalsen stated honestly,
"In what way," Yetri narrowed his eyes dangerously,
"Obviously for drinking," Kalsen answered without skipping a beat. "I'm offended if you would think anything otherwise."
Recieveing the bowl of water from Kalsen who was staring at his with face that said 'how dare you?!' In the end, Yetri relaxed himself. It was to bothersome to worry about what was Kalsen's actual plan with the bowl when he was this sleepy.
"Alright make me something to eat," Yetri yawned once more while taking sips of water from the bowl.
"Yea, yea," Kalsen rolled his eyes and went to work.
And 2 years have passed! I really just wanted Kalsen to get older so that I could start thinking about the interesting stuff. I feel like I can pick up the pace a little with the story. And also, how do you think that Kalsen managed to outsmart Graver? Comment what you think. Well anyways, I hope you enjoyed~