Everyone's Smile

All the naughty thoughts immediately went away.

Decades have passed. The flawed and casted kingdom tradition has been abandoned in favor for more feminist sided justice. But the discrimination against women still persists until today.

Niva's step father once talked about a glaring societal problem in Richter. The higher status gentleman still loves to have an affair or two with another woman. It is not strictly forbidden but if a divorce application is filed by the woman that has enough evidence for the affairs, the alimony will be in the woman's favor.

Rape cases have more severe punishment than just your affair cases. The victim can file a report to the Kingdom's judicial court. The victim and suspect respectively will be assigned prosecutor and defendant. And both sides will try to present as much evidence as possible in the courtroom. After that, a jury will determine the final outcome of the cases. Guilty or Not Guilty.

This is the most general type of judiciary system in Voltingen. But some administrative system still sticks with the old patriarchal rules. Fearing the disintegration, some areas are given special autonomy while some are not.

'What I've heard is that Lula lived somewhere near the Crimson Wind Mountain. In a town near the major Red Essence Dungeon. The high altitude and rough climate make it the most sparsely populated area. Not counting the creatures there are categorized as dangerous to the human kind. How the hell did she get this far away from home?'

'It is somewhat true that the area there is autonomous, especially in the judicial law. The old and House Farathor is still as stubborn and conservative as ever.'

They soon heard a loud noise from the room that those two entered. Even the mudwall cannot damp the loud banging there.

Lynel opens the wooden door. His face is even more menacing than ever before. A glimpse of a stressed Cynthia as she sits with two elbows sticks on a hardwood table. Her two palms cover her whole face as she tries to cover her shame.

The blonde haired boy closes the door behind him as he then crosses his arm while squatting with his yellow brownish shirt and back shirt sticks to the mud wall behind him.

"What happened, man?" asks Niva as calmly and casually as possible.

"The whole Me and Cynthia operation will be disbanded. She will not collaborate with us any longer. This will be the last time that she helps us."

"Come with us then! We'll escape out of the continent together."

Lynel's diamond-shaped face softens. "To where? the northern seas are terrorized by Gewjory's Colossus."

"Yeah, except that thing is under construction after the clash with our Richter." Niva almost forgot the importance of the information. They need to set sail north before The Colossus finishes maintenance.

Lynel eyes widens. "Wow, you should have told me earlier. Two great beasts injuring each other. That was a rare occurrence indeed."

"We should go to Elian island and visit my long gone family. I bet they miss me after hundreds of years of not coming back." Lynel stands up.

He sure has a big mouth. Niva can imagine the nonsense that Lula heard earlier.

"Hey what was that silly idea you were talking about?" Lula raises her speech tone. "The three of us will be skinned alive and tied to a pole facing the Faroo Continent."

"But I am not a human. In fact I am a Foxtren." Lynel nonchalantly breaks her argument. Not only that, he looks happy and proud.

Lula instinctively goes behind Lynel's back. "Where is your tail then?" searches the brown haired girl as she smiles in a sly mannerism.

"It's off limits." Lynel swerves his body so that Lula is always in front of him. Lula never stands a chance against Lynel's eloquent and swift body movement.

"If you want to see so badly, you can take a peek at my pointy ears under my cap." He immediately opens his ranger cap. At a first glance there is not much difference from your regular hair color. It is because Foxtren can hide their pointy cat-like ears on top of the hair.

The two spots on his hair lifted upwards. Revealing blonde cat like ears that seems weird without your usual Foxtren tail

Non-humans usually prefer to hide all, if not, specific body parts that stand out from other humans. In foxtren case, they are known to have a beautiful fox-like tail and pointy cat ears on top of their hair.

Lula looks at Lynel with bubbly eyes. "Never in my life I would meet a real Foxtren."

Foxtren in fact always wanders off outside of the Songhara area. But outside, they pretty much have strict rules to hide contrasting physical appearance from their human friend. However, they will reveal their physical features when they are alone or in their domain.

Seeing Lynel's sudden happy face after what just happened with Cynthia is not surprising. The news that The Colossus is being maintained is great news to them. Before The Beast era, the non-humans have a tradition to spend an amount of time in Elian. They call this the Rekindling Pilgrimage.

No one will stop them from going to the island.

The blue haired boy then sits on a chair near the mud wall. Seeing the happy faces of Lula teasing Lynel calms his mind a bit.

'What will happen if we successfully rescue Krilo? Will he be able to make it after that? What will happen if we get out of the continent? What will our lives be?' It is because of him that everyone involved in this very place. He must be responsible for their survival.

Niva took a glimpse of the sleeping Shervo in the corner. Her dragon-like beak curve that seems resemble of a smile.Wondering if he can see the cute face of his compfreund like when he was asleep in the police station.

Not giving two shits of what he can and cannot do as a compfreund. If there is a problem there is also a solution. It is a matter of time when the problem will be solved.

'I hope this is not the last time that I can see you all smiling'.