The sky is beautiful, isn't it?

"How many this time?" The bearded man in his twenties asked a silver haired kid with blue eyes, with a trolley beside him, with a cloth draped over it.

"...60, Please." I answered after coming out of my reverie. Currently, nothing but my meeting with Kai was revolving in my head.

At the stall, even aunt Irina called me out for 'Daydreaming' during the time of work.

In any case, today's bounty was 298 Bronze Vels, that was the amount I had amassed after selling 22 out of 24 bottles I took with me. As I promised myself, I took 40 Bronze Vels out of it for saving purposes, leaving me with 258 Bronze Vels.

"Here, kiddo." James said, again breaking me out of my thoughts.

"Yeah, and here's the money…" I said and was about to pick up the crate when the man asked,

"Somethin' on your mind, kiddo?" He asked as he picked his nose with his pinky finger.

"No, I mean yes… Actually, do you know a person named 'Kai'? Kai Von Sh—"

"Not interested." He interrupted me before I could finish my sentence.

"I see, Thanks for the bottles." I said without being offended and walked away with the trolley in tow and a bigger crate full of bottles on top of it.

'Guess I just need to discuss it again with mom again…' I sighed inside my heart and made my way towards home.

–

–

–

"I'm home, mom." I announced with a smile as I parked the trolley near the reception and ascended the flight of stairs.

"Welcome home, Ryan." She greeted me from over her shoulder as she continued her cooking in the kitchen.

"How was your day, Mom?" I asked as I moved towards her to check what she was cooking.

"Nothing out of the ordinary, it's definitely not something that would interest the 'Earning man of the house'." She said in a teasing tone.

"Come on mom," I groaned at mom's choice of words and continued "And whatever involves you is my topmost priority!"

"Aweee! My sweet little boy~!" Knowing who I was up against, and that retaliation would be a futile endeavour, I just smiled and didn't say anything.

"What's cooking, mom?" I asked as I moved next to mom, hoping to shift the topic from me to food—One thing we both had mutual love for.

"Curry rice. And bring me the jar of turmeric." She answered and gave me a task at the same time.

I also moved towards the small doorless cupboard where all sorts of jars with various spices and addings were kept, I picked up a glass jar with yellowish powder inside, that was turmeric.

How can curry be complete without turmeric? Making curry without turmeric would be blasphemous!

With these thoughts, I gave the jar to mom as she added turmeric into the curry without any measurements, as if it was in her instincts.

"Dinner will be up in a bit, get the plates ready, my sweet and hard-working prince~" Mom told me with her unusually high teasing tone.

"As you command, my generous and beautiful Queen." I also played along with her and proceeded to decorate our multipurpose dining table.

In an hour, we were done with dinner in which I had two whole servings of curry rice. Currently, I was helping mom wash the dishes.

"Anything bothering you, son?" She asked as she passed a soaped plate which I started to clean with clear water.

"I was thinking about the offer I talked to you about earlier," I replied as I propped the washed plate in the dish stand while accepting a soaped bowl from mom.

"Tell me about the people you met."

To answer this question, I focused on the brief meeting I had. To be honest, there wasn't much to go about.

There was a girl—the psycho who leapt at me like a beast just because I was there—and a crazy looking red robed man—one with the vibes of a mad scientist.

After much thought, I gave this summary to mom. To my surprise, all she did was chuckle, as if she found my dilemma a funny side-story.

By this time, we were done with washing dishes and moved to the balcony to watch the beautiful night sky.

"What about introductions? You should understand the importance of names, dear son of mine." She commented with a sweet smile.

"Uh... I don't know the name of the weird girl, but the weird guy said his name was 'Kai Von Sheron'." I replied, for a moment I imagined as if there was an expression of shock on her pretty face.

'Must be my imagination.' I said to myself, not like she would know the person in question, now would she?

"You said they were in red robes, correct? Was there any insignia on their robes?" She asked after a moment of thought.

"...I didn't pay much attention, sorry." I said while racking my mind for any glimpse of any kind of badge on their clothes.

"Hmm... Accept the offer." She said after deliberating on something.

"Your wish is my command, your highness." I saluted with my right fist on my chest, where my heart was.

Trusting her wholly, I closed the matter there and started thinking about the little excursion tomorrow.

"The sky is beautiful, isn't it?" Mom said as she kept her gaze fixed on the almost full moon and the neighbouring stars.

"Sure is," I agreed and continued, "Tomorrow will be full moon night, right?"

"Yeah,"

"Alright, let's rest now, tomorrow's gonna be a long and tiring day." Mom said with a sigh.

As I didn't understand what she was talking about, I just smiled and nodded.

"Mum, I need to go for a bit, I'll be right back." I said and ran down the stairs as I remembered something important that could be a lifesaver during tomorrow's trip.

As I was descending down the flight of stairs, I asked in my mind.

'Is it ready?'

[Yup.]