...
Around 14 hours ago...
Reilei closed the door behind her as she left out of the apartment with a smile on her face. Every day she would leave for her third job around this time to a nearby late-night restaurant as a waitress.
When she heard the sound of that door close all the way the smile on her face slowly vanished and was replaced by an expression of exhaustion. Reilei worked around 18 hours every day and had not taken a bit of time off since she was married. When Reilei's now ex-husband left her and Jin behind, she had no money, no job, she was just a normal housewife not used to working at all. But nonetheless, she persevered because she knew that she had to take care of the only important person left in her life, Jin.
There were many times where he suggested that he take a job and work but she would not allow it. He was still young and full of life with dreams, Reilei would never be able to forgive herself if she got in the way of that. So even if this was a burden she had to carry alone, she would do so for the sake of her son and his dreams.
Reilei gave herself a light slap on the cheeks and slightly shook her head and soon after a smile once again found its way to her face. "You can't let Jin see you like this Reilei. Keep it together" she thought to herself as she began to walk down the street heading to work.
The restaurant wasn't a very far walk from the apartment she lived in and so the commute was not bad.
After walking for around 5 minutes, Reilei noticed a group of three guys hanging out on the sidewalk rolling dice and throwing money down. She recognized the group as some local small-time gangsters that always bullied Jin when they had the chance. They were always up to no good and was a troublesome batch of youths with no direction in life.
Reilei decided to simply cross the street to the other sidewalk and continue onward. But as she passed by them on the opposite side, one of the gang members was looking over in her direction and tapped the guy next to him with his elbow.
"Hey hey, check her out. She's freaking hot bro!"
The guy who was tapped looked over to where his friend was and saw Reilei. "Oh yeah! Dan, that's who I was telling you about! That's the mother of that loser we always run into. What's his name again... Lin? Fin? Something stupid like that. Anyways, what did I tell you? She's a freakin' beauty right? How the heck is that loser even related to her?"
"You mean that brat Jin? Haha, I've known that bastard since primary school, he was always just a nerd with his face stuck in video games all day" the third guy ogled at Reilei. "Man... Her husband must've been blind to leave something like that... I'm gonna go talk to her, lay down some moves. Just sit back Dan and Victor, let a pro show you how its done" the third guy got up and started walking over.
"How fast do you think Rhodes is gonna get shut down?" Dan said as he laughed it off.
"I give him 3 seconds tops, and that's me being generous" Victor responded as he shook his head.
They were speaking so loud that Reilei had no trouble hearing them from all the way across the street. When she heard them speaking she decided to speed up her walking pace. These kids were around the same age as her son, so she felt a bit sick hearing them speak about her in such an inappropriate manner.
"Hey! Wait for a second!" Rhodes called out to Reilei, however, she kept walking not paying him any mind. This agitated Rhodes as he started to run to catch up with her, stopping in front of her which caused Reilei to be startled and halt her steps. "I was calling out for you. Didn't you hear me?" Rhodes spoke in what he believed to be the voice of prince charming, but the way he sounded only made Reilei feel disgusted.
"I have to get to work soon. If you'll excuse me" Reilei tried to step around Rhodes but he quickly blocked her path once more causing her to frown.
"Don't worry I can pay you for your 'time' if you want heh. What? Too good for someone like me? I know you can use it right?"
Reilei shivered from head to toe. She had never been so humiliated and infuriated before! But she held herself back from erupting and spoke in an emotionless and calm voice, "I have no interest, so I'll kindly decline your offer. Now, I must get to work before I'm late" Reilei slipped past Rhodes not bothering to wait for him to respond.
"Hey, I'm still talking to you!" Rhodes reached out and grabbed Reilei by her wrist tightly.
Reilei winced from the pain, it felt as though her fragile wrist would snap at any time. "Y... You're hurting me..!" she tried to pull her wrist away from Rhodes but his grip was too strong.
"Hurting you? I just wanted to talk to you and maybe take you out. You want to act all stuck up like I'm not worth your time?!" Rhodes never had much luck with ladies. In fact, when he was in high school there were plenty of beautiful girls he wanted as a girlfriend, but they all ignored him and wouldn't give him the time of day. So when Reilei rejected him just now it brought back up those bad memories and upset him a great deal. "I'll show you what really hurts" his grip around Reilei's wrist tightened as he lifted his hand up about to slap her.
Dan and Victor were already rushing over and managed to make it there in time to stop him. "What are you doing bro?! You trying to get the cops after us or something?!" Dan said as they were holding Rhodes back. Even though they might do some bad things it was only the occasional street fighting or robbing someone, but Rhodes seemed like he wanted to do something completely different!
"Dude, just let it go! Come on, let's just get outta here, she won't say nothin'!" Victor said trying to calm Rhodes down. He was like a loose cannon sometimes, so there was no telling what he'd do to this woman if he got pissed off.
While Dan and Victor were holding Rhodes back, his grip loosened on Reilei's wrist and she immediately ran away without looking back.
"I'll find where you work! I know your son! You hear me?! Nobody treats me like nothing! Nobody" Reilei could hear Rhodes shouting out from behind her but she did not stop running until she was completely out of sight.
Reilei was gasping for air and hunched over trying to catch her breath. She had not run so much since high school during the physical fitness test. There was a light sniffle coming from her as little droplets of water could be seen hitting the ground at her feet. But she quickly rubs her eyes and took a deep breath trying to calm herself down. But she was still shaking and could still feel the pain in her wrist from being clenched so tightly. There was a red mark left around it that made her feel as though she had been almost violated.
She felt nauseous and sick to her stomach, however, she still had to go to work. Reilei could not afford to have a single day off or else all the bills would stack up higher than they already were. "I must endure... I must..." she muttered to herself as she stood up straight. She took out a small handkerchief from her purse and wiped her eyes clean and removed some of the sweat from her face.
Since she ran for quite some time, Reilei was not too far away from where she worked and in just a few minutes arrived at the restaurant.
As soon as she entered through the door, a short and chubby man with neat and tidy hair approached her. He was the manager of the establishment and Reilei's current boss while she worked here.
"You were almost late again Reilei. Look, I like you and you do a good job but I need workers that are going to be on time" it was becoming a common pattern now that Reilei would show up a few minutes late or just barely make it on time. Even if he wanted to play the nice guy, business was business at the end of the day.
"I apologize, I promise it will not happen again manager Benson" Reilei gave a respectful bow. She couldn't possibly tell him of that situation that made her almost late today. It was too humiliating to even think about.
Manager Benson let out a sigh, "Alright alright, go ahead and get ready for your shift. Shelly is leaving soon so you can take over her tables" he then went back to taking care of other tasks that required his attention.
"Thank you very much" Reilei bowed once more before heading off to the employee's changing room and swapped into her waitress clothes.
"Hey Reilei, I see Benny is still giving you a hard time hm?" a woman was sitting on one of the benches in the employee's changing room, stretching as if she were exhausted from having just finished a long shift.
Reilei shook her head, "It's my fault for always losing track of time Shelly. Thank you for covering for me yesterday so I could work my other job. I promise I'll pay you back somehow" Reilei looked a touch sad. When she made that sad face with a tiny pout and looked at Shelly with those big beautiful emerald eyes, Shelly couldn't help but to let out a long sigh and admit defeat.
Shelly giggle and said, "I told you not to worry about that Reilei. I know you have a lot on your plate since that bastard husband of yours abandoned you and your son. If you need for me to cover your shifts at times, I don't mind. You deserve a break too you know?" the woman then stood up and went over to give Reilei a hug. "An angel like you shouldn't have to suffer so much, so let this little devil of a friend take some of that suffering away okay?" Shelly said with a sweet smile.
A genuine smile blossomed onto Reilei's face as she nodded her head in response. The truth was, she knew that Shelly would be willing to cover for her. But, she couldn't take advantage of her only friend like that. She was unwilling to push her burdens onto someone else if she did not absolutely have to.
Shelly then released Reilei from the hug and said, "I'm going now. Try not to work too hard okay? Also, careful of those guys at table 13, they're total tools" she then left out the back door of the restaurant after saying farewell to Reilei.
Reilei gave a small wave as Shelly left through the back door. She still had another two minutes before her shift began but for some reason, she could not stop shaking. She hid it well from Shelly, but as soon as they left she could no longer hold it back.
Reilei sat down on the bench with her hands placed upon her lap. She moved her left hand over to cover the bruise on her right wrist where she was grabbed earlier. Tears slowly started to stream down from her eyes as she silently wept. She curled into an upward fetal position and buried her face into her lap.
Reilei was there all alone at that moment. If not for Jin, who knows what dark thoughts would invade her mind in times like these.
"I'm sorry, Jin... I'm not strong at all... I'm not strong at all..." she muttered quietly to herself, unable to control the flow of tears...
...
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...
Ding! You have discovered a new location 'Village of Tears'!
A village was laid out before the eyes of the party. There were people roaming around trading items with one another, laughing cheerfully, and some were even wrestling with each other. The unusual thing about this place was the sky and the blue light it gave off. It was not the sun or sky located outside of the mountain region before they entered into the valley, because this sun was more similar to a blue supergiant star. The only difference was that it was not nearly as hot or else this entire place would be nothing but ashes.
The village was surrounded by a beautiful forest that stretched into the distance for as far as the eye could see. The ground was not paved with any sort of roads and was just a simple mixture of dirt and patches of grass here and there. This village was much warmer than the cold temperature of the 'Valley of Death'.
One of the children in the village who was a little girl was playing with some sort of ball made out of leather and stuffed with some soft type of material. As she was kicking the ball it slowly rolled over towards Halls stopping just before his feet. Just as the little girl was going to run over and chase after it, she noticed a group of strangers that did not belong in their village. Frightened by them, she quickly ran away leaving her ball behind. The little girl darted into one of the village buildings located in the center area.
"She was probably terrified by your intimidating face! Now if we run into trouble, you'll only have yourself to blame" Scarlet said with her arms folded.
Halls scratched the side of his cheek while looking helpless. Terrified by his intimidating face? Since when was his face intimidating?
"Be on guard, we may receive an unfriendly welcome" Izroth watched as the little girl entered into one of the buildings inside of the village. It was the biggest building in the entire village so it must be an important location.
"Isolated and remote places like this aren't used to outsiders. Add on to that a name like 'Village of Tears'... It doesn't sound like a place of paradise..." Luna said giving her opinion of the situation.
Not long after the little girl went into the building, a middle-aged man hurried out. He was around 2 meters tall with a well-built body, tanned skin, black hair, light green eyes, and strange tattoos all over his body. On his back was a spear releasing a savage killing intent as though it had been soaked in the blood of various enemies.
The man spoke a few words to a group who were wrestling one another and they all stopped and turned to look in the direction of the crevice that led into the 'Valley of Death'. People had actually come from the other side?! They knew how dangerous that place was because it was a place of exile. If one of their villagers committed an unforgivable crime, they would be sent to the 'Valley of Death' as punishment and not a single one has managed to return alive.
They all straightened themselves up releasing a battle-hardened aura to show that if needed they were ready to fight at any time. The man who appeared to be the leader of the group began to walk towards Izroth and his party. Trailing right behind him were six other men who were all part of the group that was wrestling not too long ago. They all stopped around 5 meters away from the assembly of strangers. The leader of the group scrutinized the intruders from head to toe. "I am the head warrior of this village, Hajitin. State your purpose for coming here" Hajitin was on guard and ready to respond if they tried to force their way in or bring trouble.
Izroth also took the time out to observe the people before him namely, the man named Hajitin.
NPC Name: Head Warrior Hajitin (Elite)
NPC Level: 17
"We are on a journey to find the Seer that lives in the center of the mountain regions. Do you know where they are?" Izroth got straight to the point not bothering to hide anything. The bracelet had guided them to this place which meant that it was at the very least related to the quest for finding the Seer.
The moment the villagers heard that these strangers were searching for the Seer, they immediately took a hostile stance. Hajitin's face darkened as he spoke, "What business do you have with she who possesses the eyes of truth?" it looks like the villagers did indeed have some knowledge about the Seer. Maybe they even knew her current location!
"We mean you no harm. We were sent by someone who knows the Seer personally" Luna tried to soothe things over before they spiraled out of control. If they were attacked by this group of NPC's all at once they may be able to somehow manage or escape. But, it was unclear if there were more warriors in this village or not. On the off chance there was it would not be wise to agitate them for fear of being overrun with numbers alone.
"Leave! She who possesses the eyes of truth does not meet with just anyone. You must be chosen and you all lack the qualifications" Hajitin spoke in a firm tone. There were many villagers who dreamed of being able to personally visit the Seer and could not do so. How would a group of unknown outsiders possibly be able to do so?
Izroth's eyes turned cold as he stared at Hajitin. When was the last time someone told him that he lacked the qualifications to do anything? "Then what must we do in order to gain the proper qualifications...?" Izroth's hand rested on the hilt of his 'Nameless Blade'.
The current atmosphere was tense with neither of the two sides backing down from one another.
"Enough!" a voice echoed from far away. An elderly man that needed to use a cane to walk, stepped out from within the village building that Hajitin left appeared out of earlier.
"Great Elder!" all the village members immediately showed their respects giving a bow. Even Hajitin gave a slight bow to the old man as he began to approach them.
"Great Elder, these people are here to cause trouble for she who possesses the eyes of truth. We cannot allow them to remain in our village, it may bring us a disaster" Hajitin said in a serious voice.
"Disaster? Fool, do you not realize the power of the great possessor when it is right in front of your eyes?!" the Great Elder appeared to be upset at Hajitin at his way of handling things.
Hajitin was confused as to why the Great Elder spoke to him in such a manner. In fact, it was very rare to see such a kind man upset so Hajitin felt as though he did something wrong without realizing it.
"You" the Great Elder pointed to Izroth, "Where did you find that Bracelet?" he was pointing to the band of light surrounding Izroth's wrist. Most would not be able to notice that it was from the 'Strange Bracelet' in his inventory, but this old man seemed to capable of sensing it without an issue.
"We came across it after defeating one of the creatures inside of the valley and it brought us here. We've traveled far to visit the Seer and hope that you can tell us where she currently is" Izroth responded to the Great Elder getting right to the matter at hand.
The Great Elder looked as though he were in deep thought. "Hmm..." he began to turn around and walk back towards the direction of the building he exited from. "Follow me. If that bracelet has guided you to this place then it is not without purpose".
Hajitin was shocked, the Great Elder was letting complete strangers into their village! But he could not verbally express his disagreement as the Great Elder held a much higher status than him. The only person that would be able to change his mind was the village chief, however, he was currently away from the village.
"Should we follow him?" Halls said looking over at Izroth. Luna and Scarlet also glanced over at Izroth as well. Since it was his quest and he has shown leadership abilities, everyone started to naturally leave the important decision to him.
Izroth nodded his head, "We'll follow him. He knows about this bracelet and the one they call 'she who possesses the eyes of truth' is most likely the Seer Tererestiaa that we're searching for" Izroth stepped forward following after the Great Elder into the building placed at the center of the village. Halls, Luna, and Scarlet trailed behind him entering in as well.
Hajitin waved his hand as the group of warriors dispersed and went back to doing their own thing. Hajitin decided to head over and return to the building as well. It was his job as the head warrior to protect it and just in case anything went wrong he should be nearby to respond. Once he entered inside he took a seat behind the Great Elder while constantly observing Izroth and his group.
The inside of the building resembled that of a hut, but it was quite spacious in comparison to an actual hut. The walls were made from some type of wood wrapped in the hide of various animals or beast. The floor had beast fur placed all over it like carpet and that is what everyone was currently sitting on.
After giving everyone a moment to get situated the Great Elder finally opened his mouth and spoke. "I do indeed know the location of she who possesses the eyes of truth... Or the Seer as you call her" the Great Elder reached next to him and pulled out a bead about the size of a marble. It was violet in color and gave off no aura whatsoever as though it were just a regular bead.
Izroth and the party examined the bead looking for something special about it, but none of them were able to perceive anything that seemed out of place.
"This is a 'Sacred Bead' given to us by the great Seer. She once told us there would come a day when someone came searching for her. When that day comes, we are supposed to give this bead to them. I do not know its usage or purpose, but if it was given by the great Seer then it must be important" the Great Elder held out the bead towards Izroth.
When Izroth was about to reach for it the bead slowly levitated in midair and started naturally drifting in his direction. Though it wasn't actually moving towards him but rather the band of light on his wrist. When the bead came in contact with the band of light it illuminated the entire building in a soft violet hue.
Everyone was startled by the events taking place, no one knew what was going on!
The violet hue began to gather at the center of the room forming a small vortex of powerful energy. When they saw what was taking place, everyone instantly put up their guard except for the Great Elder and Hajitin. The two of them gave a deep bow as an image began to form from within the vortex.
Izroth noticed the behavior of the two and came up with a guess at what or who the image was forming in the middle of that swirling vortex of energy.
A few seconds later the face of a woman wearing blindfolds took shape within the vortex of energy. She looked pure as though she were completely untainted by the world. However, if one observed closely they would notice a look of helplessness on her face as if she were resigned to her fate.
"She who possesses the eyes of truth!" the Great Elder and Hajitin spoke at the same time in a respectful tone of voice while bowing deeply.
It was the face of the Seer Tererestiaa!
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