500 meters from Jinrui Village, there was a large river that divided the West area of Eastern Han’ei and its Southwest. The river was known as Han River, and it branched to many villages, granting the villages of West and Southwest of Han’ei with fair amount of water from the river. Jinrui village was granted by two streams of river, but each of them had small debit of water. The streams were the borders of Jinrui, as it was as if surrounding the village on its South and North.

On the North side, there was a village that was the complete opposite of Jinrui, called as Utau Village. Unlike Jinrui villagers that were dominated by pompous people, Utau villagers were very carefree and kind. Despite the village was dominated by mages, its Headman was a non-magical human…

The man with blue hair sighed contently, and sipped his morning tea with peaceful smile played on his lips. “Such peaceful,” he moaned in pleasure. He was indeed having a leisure time alone, until one of the village men decided to barge in… in a barbaric way.

“Shion sir!” The man said loudly. The blue haired man scowled and placed his teacup to the table, and looked at the young man with long silky purple hair with an unamused stare.

“What is it, Kamui? Another of your eggplants died?” He asked sarcastically, or rather, growled. Kamui shook his head, ignoring the sarcastic remarks of him. “I am not playing around, Doctor-nim! You may want to take a look of these young girls!” He stepped into the clinic, granting his whatever business he had could get in.

A blonde girl and boy twin walked inside, the girl holding a baby while the boy holding a young girl around 7. Shion looked at Kamui, and Kamui pointed at the girls’ neck.

Shion bended his body to examine their neck, and gasped in excitement. He recognized the pale blue marking printed on their left side of neck.

“Gracia’s daughter! I know she’s still alive somewhere!” He cried, and scrambled to his workplace. A couple of minutes later, he returned with a worn paper on his hand.

“What is it, Sir?” Kamui asked curiously. Shion only smiled sadly.

“A will.” He said. “She left it to me just before those…” Shion crunched his nose in disgust. “…wretched being called humans of ‘justice’ began slaughter those poor magical beings. Especially dragons… You do know how powerful non magical humans became, do you?” Kamui nodded glumly. He knew it too well. He lost his parents a year ago because of them, because they accused his parents as witches that needed to be slain.

“We all know mages are entirely different than witches.” Kamui scoffed. The twin beside him nodded. They too, had lost their parents because of the ‘witch accusation’. In fact, nearly half the people on this village lost their parents because of that.

“Witches use wands, while we don’t. Do we need to explain it to those idiots?” The boy twin said, crossing his arms in agitation. “Yeah,” the girl twin nodded. “We don’t need tools to summon flame!” She said and flicked her hand, which was soon engulfed in hot bright golden flame.

“I find that agreeable,” Shion nodded. He was slightly different than them, however. He was a non magical fellow, but his parents were mages. And like the others’ parents, they were struck down mercilessly. Shion shook his head as the memories of his parents died protecting him. “No,” Shion thought bitterly, “I mustn’t let that let me down. I have bigger task at hand!” he thought after that, thought full of determination. He was carrying a noble task, and he knew he mustn’t be distracted, even for the slightest thing.

--

At the time, Wato was playing with his brother and sister at the side of the river. Like any village children do, they played on the shallow part of the river, splashing each other for a shriek of joy and irritation.

“Wato!” Wato looked back, and fell back to the water as a hurling of water blasted to his face. It didn’t hurt him physically, but it hurt his pride. “Luna!” He shrieked angrily, getting up from the water. “I’m going to catch you!” Luna faked a scared look, and smirked at him.

“Hooo you sure lil bro?”

“Yes!”

Until dusk, the two of them kept playing on the water, while the oldest of the three—Wato’s and Luna’s brother, Revy only watch them from the shore.

They had fun for the day, and decided to call it a day as the moon began to rise. Tired, they hoped to find some quiet and peace for the night.

But their hope was crushed.

Their house, with their father and mother tied onto its wall, was burned. Wato, only seven at the time, could never forget the melting skin of his father and mother, as well as their blood-curling scream of death.

And he always remembered how his siblings gave up their life to remove Wato’s magic from his body, just so he could be safe.

--

“Shion, sir?” Shion snapped out from his thought, glancing at the Twins who looked at him in pure concern. “You’ve been silent for quite some time.” The girl one said worriedly. “Yeah,” The boy one nodded, expressing his agreement. “Silent and frowning.” He added.

“Fear not,” he smiled to the twins, grateful to have companions as the Twins and Kamui, even though they were bunch of idiots along with Luke, Tundra, and Prima. “I am perfectly fine.” He assured, and the Twins (along with Kamui) sighed in relief.

“Now Twins, please fetch Kasane. We need her.” The twin saluted to the doctor and exited the small house hastily. Shion then turned to Kamui, giving him a list of ingredients. “Kamui, please check fetch these ingredients.” He said gently to Kamui as he gave him a list. Kamui nodded at the request and left immediately without further question.

Shion looked at the two children on the examination bed, and sighed. Carefully he removed the damp blue cloth, and the baby shivered. He chuckled a bit and replaced the cloth with warm blanket. He thoughtlessly removed the girl’s clothes, as he had a daughter who lived on the house beside his small clinic. He wrapped the little girl with warm towel as he looked for his daughter’s spare clothes.

“Found it…” he whispered softly to no one. Then he carefully dressed the girl with the clothes and underwear he found. It was not too awkward for him, honestly. He was a father of three daughters with no mother, and he was a pediatrician, apparently having dealt with children’s illness twice than adults, so why would he feel awkward looking at child’s body?

As Shion placed the dirty clothes to the laundry basket, he found some golds dropped. He carefully picked it up and smiled.

Perhaps this would be useful in the future, he thought and stuffed the five golds to the girl’s pocket.

Around an hour later, the door opened with a loud bang for the second time that day. Shion nearly forgotten how barbaric disguising magical creature were. “Wato Shion! You lookin’ for me?” A woman with red drill locks on both sides asked loudly. Shion groaned.

“Woman! Please talk and ask like a woman do!” He snarled at the woman, who seemed offended. The woman rolled her eyes, and closed the door as gently as she could. “Woman? You fool. I’m a CHIMERA FOR SAKE!”

“NO CURSING IN MY WORKPLACE YOU TWIT!”

The chimera growled, baring her sharp teeth to the doctor, who only gave her disinterested gaze. She sighed in defeat and finally asked, after knowing that she could never win against the doctor.

“Grr… alright. What is it? Found any dragons yet? Who are those cuties? Your other daughters? Do you need my blood? You know to revive them? Or do you have a grandkid?”

“Tundra, stop asking.” Shion flatly said, which effectively ended Kasane’s stream of questions.

“Alright.” She harrumphed, and walked closer to the unconscious seven years old. “Eh, is she an ice dragon q—“

“Yes.” Shion sighed, catching Kasane who casted a quick glance to the baby. “And the baby too.”

“Interesting.” She stated with a wry smile. “Now what is it?”

Shion sighed again and told her to have a seat first, which she complied immediately, considering how tired she was as she had to walk(run) from her living quarter to KS Clinic, which was end to end. She lived near the border between Jinrui Village and Utau village while KS Clinic was near the border between Utau village and Forbidden Forest. Sure she was a chimera and she could fly, but her eyesight was as bad as hippo’s and she wasn’t willing to lose her glasses while flying.

She could walk, actually, but the twin had managed to convince her to be there soon. That is, by making a frantic request. Shion merely smirked when Kasane complained the twin’s way of life. “They actually making me OLD!” She screamed in frustration, only to have Shion calmly said, “You’ve lived near two centuries, Tundra.” 

“Please. Don’t make yourself at home first.” Shion said while pinching his nose bridge. “This is, perhaps, will lead us to the next piece of puzzle. So I need you to be on your full attention.” Kasane sighed and uncrossed her legs.

“Very serious matter then,” Kasane muttered under her breath. “You always let me cross my legs, whether it’s serious or not, during any meetings.” She added and Shion nodded.

“This is about Gracia and Ignis.”

Kasane stared at Shion with wide eyes.

“Now spill.”

Hey. Holiday has ended. Damn.

Review.

Special thanks to norev9  for upvoting and the three who gave their support to their champion!

Current score :

Taengsic - 0

JeTi - 2

Soosica - 1

Kidding.

Poll will start on October, or chap 10.

UNTIL THEN!