Murloc Incident

In an alley on Grapheon Kingdom, a young boy with the same age as Zeon can be seen fighting with a murloc that successfully escaped the defense perimeter created by the kingdom's army.

The young boy has red hair, wears heavy armor like the kingdoms knight, and holds a spear on his hands. His eyes looked clear and his fighting spirit can be seen by how serious he's taking the fight.

There are two other carcasses of dead murlocs near the young boy's feet.

"The number is higher than last time.."

He's running toward the murloc, using momentum from it, he swings his spear against the murloc's club.

An overwhelming advantage can be seen from here as the murloc's club get parried by his spear.

Gathering more energy and strengthening the spear attack with runic force, the young boy thrust his spear toward the murloc.

After seeing his club get parried, the murloc panicked and tried to defend the spear attack with its water shield that was already formed in his other hand.

"Sorry, but I'm stronger than the last time we saw each other."

The young boy smiled at the murloc as his mind reminisced about something.

The water shield on the murloc hand cannot defend against the spear thrust. The murloc hand got punctured as the spear continued its path hitting the murloc left side where its heart is located. Blood trickled down from the back of the murloc punctured body.

The young boy pulled out his spear from the murloc body.

The murloc fell to the ground as its last breath left its life. It's dead like the other murlocs.

Walking slowly toward another alley that was near to the river, the young boy figure is covered by the shadows of the surrounding buildings giving a mysterious heroic vibe and yet it feels a little lonely.

===

On one of the main roads of Xenolith Principality, a young noble can be seen walking slowly against the flow of people running away from that area.

His noble stature can be seen by his walking posture and dull expression without a hint of panic on his face. On his left hand, he's carrying a cane that is usually used by nobles to show their dignity and influence to others, except it's a little bigger and longer than usual, like hiding something inside of it.

Today, he just got into this world, the first memory that he received is that his sister was playing near the river when a sudden news suddenly spread that there's a dangerous situation that happened near the river and evacuation is needed as soon as possible. Without organizing anything, he just goes by himself toward the location of his sister. Maybe some memories from the previous owner of this body unconsciously lead him toward this path.

Their parents are on their way to the nearest church branch to find an archbishop to heal their son that mysteriously lost his consciousness this morning. They haven't come back yet, maybe their journey back is hindered due to the flow of panicked people on the streets.

'They would be sad if they knew that their real son is gone and inside his body is another soul.' thought the young noble while continuing to find his sister.

Finally he reaches the river area, many high ranking nobles can be seen fighting some kind of monster near the river. People running everywhere, many angry voices and curses can be heard, the situation is so chaotic.

A while later he saw his sister crying while holding her foot, bruises with some blood can be seen on her whole body from where he's standing. No one cares about the little young girl as everyone else is trying to protect their own life.

She's also trying to run away after seeing the hideous monster that suddenly showed near the river, but too many people bumped toward each other when panic happened. Her little stature is just too weak and she bumped into a lot of people and fell many times.

"Help me, everyone, someone, it hurts.."

Tears started forming in her eyes. It hurts a lot. She cannot run anymore. No one helped her.

Not far from her, a murloc walking slowly toward her holding his big club made of coral. Seeing the monster coming, the little girl's face is full of tears, she looks like there's no one around her location anymore, the people have already run away, she cannot ask for help even if she wants to.

"Father.. mother.. and idiot mean brother.. It looks like Tina can't be with you anymore.. Tina will miss all of you a lot."

The girl closed her eyes after saying her goodbye which no one should ever hear. The murloc footsteps become closer, she doesn't make another noises as she's already accepting her fate.

Suddenly on the empty area, a sound of someone's steady footsteps can be heard slowly approaching from the main road which shouldn't have anyone around.

*Klack! Klack! Klack..

Without saying anything to his sister, the young noble continues to walk until he's a meter away from the murloc. For the first time, on his dull looking face, anger can be seen on it. His eyes becoming more frightening, after seeing all of that he really want to murder those people, in his mind they are as ugly as the monster infront of him.

The young girl slowly opened her eyes looking at the back of a young boy her age wearing noble clothes. Unbelievable and relieved written on her younger face.

'Someone's here to save Tina? But his back seems a little familiar, does Tina know him? That weird looking cane he's carrying is similar to brother.. No way that idiot and mean brother will help Tina.'

Looking at the young boy, Tina felt thankful. When everyone around left her to die alone, this young boy standing infront of her is the only one who comes to help. But Tina is also worried for the young boy, he's only a child like her, how can he fight against a monster that even adults find terrifying and run away from.

'He doesn't even have any weapons. Is he going to fight with that weird looking cane.' Tina wondered from behind.

"Brave brother.. It's okay.. It's dangerous here.. You should run away.. Tina will distract it, thanks for coming to try to save Tina." while trying to find some courage, Tina said to the boy standing in front of her with a little shaken voice.

Without saying anything, the boy exerted his runic force, a hidden mechanism from runic engraving in the weird looking cane started to unfold itself. A long sharp katana showed itself on the young boy's hands. Holding the weapon with his two hands, the young boy put up a sturdy looking stance to kill his opponents.

The murloc running toward the young boy trying to smash him the the club.

The boy using all his strength to swing his katana vertically toward the incoming murloc, a strong sound like a metal cutting the air can be heard when he slash his katana.

The katana slash connected with the murloc from top to bottom. The murloc left standing in place without making any more movement. Its eyes look unfocused. A while later, the murloc's body was cut in half in the middle vertically as well as its club and its water shield. It fell to the ground lifeless.

The young boy swung his katana to throw away a little blood that stuck on the edge. The katana looked clean like it had never ever been used before. The young boy withdrew his runic force and the special mechanism sounded again to hide the katana inside that weird looking cane.

He walked to his sister to pick her up from the ground. He gave his sturdy looking back to his sister to carry her on his back.

"Are you really Tina's brother?" said the sister to the boy with a little mist formed on her eyes, feeling happy that she could live.

The boy didn't answer and just nodded his head.

Tina can see his brother nodding his head from the back. The back that usually would leave her alone when she asks to play together. The cold back that would always ignore her. Just now, it looks different, it looks more warm.

Tina gets on his brother's back burying her face in his brother's warm feeling, she feels safe with him here.

Without saying anything and with his dull looking face, he brought his sister back to their home.

===

Zeon opened his eyes and saw his white system notification panel in front of him.

[Ding! Successfully injured a murloc together with Li and Toast. Reward : +1 STR]

'Well.. This is the first time he gets a +1 reward, usually it's in zero point decimal numbers. Good job system! You are a step away from being a real normal system.'

Zeon trying to know where he is. After seeing the location, he knows that he is in the riverside pavilion near the fighting location with the murloc from before. He's trying to check his injuries, moving his hands and feet a little, it doesn't feel hurt like before, the outside wounds are already healed but still feel a little hurt on the inside, with his status regeneration and some medicine it will be completely recovered in a few days.

Looking around, he sees Li and Toast still sleeping beside him. Near the river his grandpa and a cardinal were preparing some food. A smoking grill can be seen beside them.

'Grandpa really had a picnic after all that happened.'

Zeon trying to stand and walking slowly to their location.

"Grandpa, I'm alive, I thought your little grandson cannot see you anymore. The holy one is really kind to protect us and give us time until your arrival."

"You're awake little Zeon, come here help your grandpa prepare a barbecue, we still have our last session of picnic. Oh right, this is cardinal Samael who's usually protecting our coast from the murloc. He's also tending to all of your wounds just now."

"Thank you uncle Samael! If not for you it must still hurt a lot, your healing skill is top notch!"

"It's alright Zeon, that's a good fight you and your friends have had before, not many kids your age can have the courage to fight against murloc.

I've been guarding the coast of humanity domain for a long time. I've had a lot of experience fighting with them. Many people think that demons are scary, it's because they never fight against the murloc near their real habitat.

Murloc is weak when they are on land that's why they usually carry an artifact to store some water. Their real habitat is the sea water, there are many kinds of murloc, the strongest are those who live on the deep sea, their humongous size can rival a territory in our human domain. We call it leviathan class. But, they're not able to invade the land, they don't have feet like the other murloc, they usually support the invasion from afar by making a big wave to attack the coast which can still be managed by our water runic members. That's why the murloc have been dominating the sea for a long time.

The strongest that can attack on our land is the house sized murloc. Okay, that's it for today's lesson about murloc. Maybe later when you are big enough, you can help me to fight them."

Cardinal Samael smiling after explaining about murloc when joking about the last part.

'Sadly, it's not that far that you'll need every help defending the coast later, especially after cardinal Miguel defected, I hope there won't be any unexpected situation happening.'

While the pope is grilling some barbeque, Zeon tries to wake up Li and Toast.

After they wake up, the three of them eat some grilled fish barbeque and have some small talk with the pope and cardinal Samael on the riverside.

"Toast, how about you come with us to live with Zeon in the white palace?" asked the pope

"I think that's a good idea, Zeon also needs a friend his age to grow stronger." added cardinal Samael

"Yeah, Toast, how about you becoming my personal protector." Zeon said from the sidelines

"Well.. Becoming a co protector with this weird kid is a bit.. But, if it's the pope's suggestion then it can't be helped.. I accept you as

'The four horsemen trying to coax a little kid to join their family pyramid business.' Zeon thought

"I don't want to become a burden, It's been an honor to be accepted by a few wonderful people that give me so much food but.." Toast has resolved himself to reject the offer

Not waiting for Toast to finish his sentences, Zeon added.

"Coffee Caramel Toast every breakfast!"

Toast coughing a little and continue his sentences.

"But luckily I don't have much luggage, so when are we going to the white palace?" Toast shamelessly continued his sentence like what he said before didn't happen

Zeon, Li, the pope, and cardinal Samael laugh after hearing Toast's last question.

'This has been a long day, I hope tomorrow will be another good day to have.' Zeon closed his eyes while savoring the taste of barbecued fish in his mouth.