Six Years Later

Eastern Horizon City, one of the main cities in the eastern region of the Trigurniburg Kingdom.

It was a mountain city, and by the side of the mountain where it was standing, there was a lake called Horizon Lake, whose water came from a waterfall on the side of the said mountain.

The city before was once just a merchant trading hub for precious stones that were mined from the mountain itself. But after a rich merchant saw the potential of the location, he recommended it to the governor of the province at that time to invest money to build a small settlement for the said location, which now grew into the current city.

The type of government of the Trigurniburg Kingdom could be both classified as feudalism, with the nobles having their own forces; and authoritarian, where the chief of the government itself appoints mayors, governors, and many more to supervise cities and region, such as the Crescent Town.

Though it has to be noticed that the regional governors would only be appointed by the king if the region was under martial law. If not, there would be ten foreign unbiased scholars from the Supreme Library from the islands beyond the Northern Forest that the king will invite to vote.

However, the authoritarian side was a bit more powerful than the feudalism side as it was the real backbone mechanism of the whole government. The leader of the former was the prime minister of the country which was always influential whoever he may be, however, the said person would also be apppointed by the king.

So one could say, the king was still the most powerful person in the country, literally and politically. With the power to appoint the prime minister and with the said position's power, he kept the nobles at bay.

Technically, the king was also the leader of the nobles, so that's why the feudalism and dictatorship sides' powers were almost balanced.

As for why there were some nobles that were the leaders of a particular community such as the Riverboard City, it was because that the past king has passed on a decree that let the nobles lead the cities that they built on their own.

Nevertheless, taxes and tariffs were still needed to be paid and the communities that they built still had to follow the rules of the kingdom, which was also one of the reasons why the feudalism side could only stand toe on toe with the said opposite side, and thus, due to other certain limitations, they weren't able to muster up a proper army if they wanted to rebel.

***

As the sun rose on the horizon, a brand new day started for the citizens. Windows of houses opened up, people going out of their houses to have a morning walk, establishments opened up for businesses, the guard during the night changed their shifts with the guards during the day.

At a particular house near the city walls. A twelve year-old kid walked out of the a house.

"Come back for dinner later, James!", a voice of a woman came out from the house.

"I will, mom!", James shouted back and he sprinted off. After which, a woman walked out of the house and she let out a smile when she saw the disappearing back of the kid.

"He's really excited, I don't see him like that everyday.", the woman remarked.

"What do you mean, Melanie? He's always like that everyday. You just don't notice it.", a man who was at the small garden in front of the house said.

"Hmph. Albert, you should get a job before retorting whatever I say.", Melanie snorted.

Meanwhile, the man, who was Albert immediately replied, "I'm trying, I'm trying! It's just that there's no space in any mining station yet."

***

"Good morning."

"Good morning James."

"Good morning."

"Good morning kid."

"Good morning."

While sprinting, James greeted the people on the way. He knew most of the people on the road and vice-versa, he was also a bit known by them.

As he was about to reach to a corner. A man carrying a box of bread suddenly appeared and the two of them were caught off guard.

The man hastily stopped and the box that he was carrying became unbalanced, but it never fell from his grip. Luckily, on the other hand, the kid's reaction speed wasn't slow and he managed to dodge the man on time.

"I'm sorry mister!", James apologized and quickly rushed away.

The man could only sigh in relief and continued walking.

Meanwhile, the kid made a smile on this face as he held two loafs of bread on his hands. He obtained them when the box shook and the two loafs fell from it, which he caught hold of it.

"Hey James!", a boy at the same age as James greeted him on the road.

James slowly stopped and called out, "Hi Ivan!"

"Where are you going?", Ivan asked.

"To that shop owner.", James vaguely answered.

"Ohhh... can I come with you?", Ivan obviously knew the 'shop owner' that James was talking about.

"Mhm.", James nodded and the both of them sprinted away while splitting one of the loaf of bread for each other.

***

On a street near the marketplace...

There was a shop which was selling plants and herbs that were picked from the nearby places around the mountain and from different locations.

A man wearing an eyepatch on his right eye opened the curtains of the shop, letting the sunlight go through the window and to the plants.

He flipped the wooden sign on the door to 'opened', after which, he went outside to the small porch of the shop while dragging a rocking chair, which he sat on afterwards.

The man was also carrying a smoking pipe and inserted some crushed herbs onto the hole and ignited it.

"Huff...", the man started smoking while smelling the relaxing smell of the crushed herbs he used.

He emotionlessly surveyed the people passing back and forth on the street where his shop was due to lack of things to do.

"Hey, mister!", a voice called out.

The man looked over to the direction of the voice and saw two kids approaching him.

"Hello, Mr. Morgan.", James and Ivan greeted.

"Hello James... and to you too, Ivan.", the man, was none other than Allen.

"We brought you a loaf of bread to eat.", James handed the loaf of bread to Allen. The latter accepted it and examined it.

"It's new.", Allen said. "But then, it is obvious that stole it."

Hearing Allen's sentence, James bowed his head in shame and said, "Well, it fell from the box, so I had to catch it so it won't get wasted on the ground."

"And it's still stealing. Kid, I've always told you that...", before Allen finished his sentence, James continued it, "...it will ruin your life one day. That's what you have been saying for a long time. Don't worry, I believe you, mister!"

Allen just nodded in response and asked, "What are the two of you doing here?"

"Didn't you say that I could help you in the shop in exchange for some few coins?", James gave a questioning expression to Allen.

"I did? I don't remember it.", Allen shook his head.

"But mister, I've been working for you for a week now! So please stop joking, your facial expression isn't suited for it.", James ruthlessly said.

Meanwhile, Allen didn't reply anymore and looked at Ivan, "And you Ivan, what are you doing here?"

"I'm just accompanying James.", Ivan said.

"Oh, then you can leave now.", Allen replied without looking back, which made Ivan stunned.

"Don't worry, Mr. Morgan's just joking, you can stay in the shop, but don't create any trouble or ruin anything inside it.", James whispered to Ivan.

Ignoring the two kids, Allen walked inside the shop carrying the loaf of bread, followed by James and Ivan.

As soon as the two kids entered the shop, they were bombarded by the relaxing and soothing smell of herbs and plants.

"The smell is so good!", Ivan remarked.

"That's also my first reaction when I went inside here.", James added.

"Don't pay attention to the smell, or else you'll become addicted.", Allen warned.

There were shelves upon shelves, hanging pots or normal pots, and even an aquarium of plants and herbs in the shop. Allen placed the loaf of bread on a clean plate on top of the counter, afterwards he took out a mask from the two drawers and gave it to the two kids.

"Wear this, it's unhealthy for you two to smell the plants here for a long period of time.", Allen said.

James and Ivan thanked Allen and wore the masks.

Allen then took out a knife form the drawers and sliced the loaf of bread into ten even slices in a few seconds.

"You are really good at knives, mister!", Ivan praised.

"Uh-huh.", Allen didn't pay attention to Ivan and took away three pairs of bread and sprinkled some herbs onto it to make three sandwiches.

"Here, eat these, it's healthy.", Allen handed out a sandwich each to James and Ivan while the last one was for him.

"It's all vegetables.", Ivan muttered.

"It's delicious, I tried it once.", James lifted up his mask and ate the sandwich while Ivan followed after him.

After tasting it, Ivan was suddenly engrossed with the delicious taste of the sandwich. Even though there were only herbs inside the sandwiches, it was as if they could taste meat!

Ivan noticed the taste of pepper and salt, with a tinge of cooked meat inside the sandwich which surprised him greatly.

-crunch-

Ivan even heard and felt a crunch from some of the leaves if the sandwich. After a few seconds, the kid didn't notice that he has already ate the whole sandwich.

"That was good, mister!", Ivan remarked.

"I know right, if I didn't know that mister is just a shop owner of plants and herbs, I might think he's a chef!", James was all praise right now.

On the other hand, Allen has already finished his sandwich and said, "After you finish eating your sandwich, go continue reading the encyclopedia I told you to keep reading it."

"Mhm.", James nodded.

After seeing the kid's agreement, Allen walked out of the shop again and sat on the rocking chair and closed his eyes while smoking.