Hello minna-san (everybody), if you are reading this, I guess you have been reading the past 7 chapters of my story? At least I hope so. Hahax. Finally the first volume is already out. Like I said (or did I not?), I have been writing this story for 2 years now, with seasonal breaks for up to more than 6 months. Blame my addiction for games, storybooks, comics, and anime studying!

I think I am going to repeat myself here. This story started from a daydream I had for months until one day my friend told me to write it down. I guessed it all turned out well that I listened to her. At first, this story is to just to write down all my daydreams. I never expected it to publish on the Net.

Halfway through, I think God spoke to me. If I am writing a story, why not write a story to teach people about Christianity? Yeapx, this is what I am doing now. Because I don’t preach, and even if I do, I do not do what I preach, I think it is better to write stories, since I love stories a lot. I like to read.

Don’t worry, this story is not going to tell you to repent and be a Christian. This story is not going to tell you that if you don’t repent from all your sins you will go to hell. Although I would like to say that, nobody will read my story. Ah no. Nobody is actually reading it now. So I don’t even know how many people will even bother to read this.

What will happen in this story is, I am trying to come out with all kinds of suffering in this world and put them in this story, and use it to encourage people. Of course, I made it such a way that even non-christians would be able to read this story. I mean, this story is meant to be read by all. I am not actively promoting the religion, I am just going to write it as though it is a normal story. And here and there I would add some characteristics of Christianity. If you read through the past 7 chapters, you would roughly get what I mean. Am I contradicting myself?

Regardless, I hope that those who read will continue to read. Enjoy the story. Even though no one may read this, I am still going to post it online. Who knows? Maybe one person out of all in the whole earth will actually like it.

Kelf and Lin went to an inn for a meal and heard a group of people talking about the year’s competition the military organized. The inn was just an ordinary inn. Not very luxurious, not very big. Just simple rooms for people to stay and a simple food house for people to gather and eat.

Like old times, this inn was made totally from wood. At a height of only five storeys, it was not that outstanding in an area where there were many taller buildings around. Still, it was the only inn nearby, which meant all the travelers from overseas would gather there as a resting point.

Not only that, it sold delicious food at a lower price than the roadside stalls. That meant locals would come here and eat, since there was no reason to go other places. If the locals gathered, there would be talk on the latest events that shook the city, or at least events which made the city somewhat interesting. At least that was what rumors said. Lin did not try it for herself. So, maybe it was luck that what Lin said was true.

‘See? I told you you would be able to find information here more easily. It beats going around aimlessly trying to find a stupid poster sticking on the wall. For all you know, the poster may not even be there anymore.’

Lin tried to convince herself and Kelf that she made the right choice. It would be embarrassing and disappointing if she had dragged him all the way here, and not finding out anything, with the end result of him pulling her out of the inn when she had not even touch a single of their famous bun after her nose had caught their aroma, making her stomach even more unsatisfied after it had been eagerly expecting something to fill it. At least, do not treat it to a piece of moldy bread anymore.

‘I heard this year the competition is going to be much tougher than the last round. But as a compensation, the top 3 winners will get a higher prize money and great career opportunities in the elite military squad. With that there will be no more worries about financial matters for the rest of their lives,’ one of the patrons said.

Lin breathed a sigh of relief, and then took the money from Kelf. Maybe snatch would be a better word. Whatever the case, the money exchanged owners and she ordered some food.

‘But like you said, it is not so easy. I don’t think we will be able to get it. There are too many stronger people out there’ another said.

‘Everyone knows how much difference there is between a stage 2 and stage 1 power.’

Kelf heard what they were talking about and went to ask them about the details.

Facing the group, he asked, ‘Would you mind telling me more about the event? It looks like there is a chance to get some money.’

The people look at him.

One of them told him, ‘Forget about it, you don’t have the warrior aura around you and you look too darn weak even by our standards. Not that we want to get rid of a competitor or look down on you, but from what I see you are not suitable for fighting. If you go for the competition you will just get yourself killed. You know, deaths in the competition are not unusual although the organizers keep a tight watch to make sure people don’t die. You won’t want to lose your life like that.’

To that Kelf said, ‘Thanks for the concern. But I really need some money. Furthermore I can go and experience the event myself and see some really strong people there. I’m kind of desperate for money now. Not that I had any choice.’

‘But what’s the point of risking your life over that money?’

The people finally gave up and told him, ‘Turn left out of this entrance and go to the main street which is 5 minutes walk away to look at the notice. It is still on the wall.’

Kelf said his thanks and went out with Lin.

Before he left, one of the man shouted to him and said, ‘Heroism kills, don’t try to act cool.’

Kelf replied, ‘Thanks.’

After he left the people said, ‘That guy really thinks his life is too long.’

‘Well, there are always people who try to reach the sky and end up falling down, never getting up again.’

‘Aren’t you being too philosophical today?’ one of them asked.

And so, the people at the inn continued talking.

They walked down the street and Lin was eating the buns they bought as went around finding the notice. They finally found it and read the details. Both decided they would join the competition for the money but would not join the military if they won. There was no obligation anyway.

‘Looks like we can just take the money and go,’ Lin said.

‘Aren’t you a bit too hopeful?’ Kelf said. ‘You are already thinking we will win.’

‘You better win or we will eat leftovers again. Do you bear to see your dear pretty partner suffer so much for your own sake?’

He said nothing. He usually did not reply if he thought it was unnecessary. So both of them went to the booth to register.

‘Wow today is the registration date. If we came just a day later we would have missed the chance. The money is ours! I want a really decent meal after we get the money. Don’t just give me another few buns!’

‘You are still assuming you will get the money. We don’t even know how many strong people are out there. We might even get knocked out from the start.’

‘I have absolute faith in you to win,’ Lin told him with a cheeky smile to which he did not reply again.

What a waste of time arguing with her. They reached the registration booth and queued up. There on another line beside them was Xel and Xue. They did not see each other. But after their registration they turned around and saw the other 2.

‘I told you,’ Kelf said to Lin

With a blur look, Xue asked Xel, ‘You know them?’

Lin pointed at her and said, ‘You lied to me!’

‘Did I?’

‘Didn’t you just tell her I was going to kidnap you?’ Xel reminded her.

Xue gasped and covered her mouth. Then she held up her doll to Lin’s face and said behind the doll, ‘Sorry! He was trying to catch me and make me sign up for this. I am soooo sorry!!!’

Xel smiled at Kelf but the other didn’t smile back.

‘Well I guess we will meet you during the competition. Please have mercy on the both of us.’

With that he dragged Xue away. Lin was pointing at Xue the whole time, mouth opened wide and unable to say anything else.

‘I told you you will make good friends with her. Both of you have almost exactly the same childish character.’

‘Rubbish! I don’t pretend to be in danger when I’m not!’

‘Really?’

Lin smacked Kelf’s head and said, ‘Don’t say another word.’

Kelf and Lin were walking in a narrow alley to avoid crowds. It was the kind of alley that no normal girls would dare to walk through in the middle of the night. Dirty, eerie and one trip from one end to the other would assure you encounters with quite a few people the society classified as ‘undesirable’ or ‘dangerous’.

In a society where there was supposed to be equal human rights, there was still such a thing as ‘undesirable’ humans. Maybe you could say that society was wrong in discriminating against them, but perhaps all the other people would do that as well. All sorts of crimes could occur in that kind of alley. Areas like that were hangouts for all sorts of ‘underground’ people.

Not that they were hiding from people, but just as the streets and shops were hangouts for the supposedly good citizens of the nation, the alleys were home to the ‘undesirable’ people, as society called it.

This kind of thing happens everywhere. No matter how good the ruler is, no matter how prosperous a nation is, there will always be people refusing to work, engaging in crimes and pass their life aimlessly. Again, this statement may be a sweeping statement. Maybe there really were people who want to work but were unable to do so, maybe there were different reasons why they were there.

But society did not know it. Society refused to interact with the people, because it had been proven that among all those mixing in the alleys there were some who really would hurt and harm people, especially if it was a girl who passed by.

Was it society’s fault, or the people’s fault? It was an endless debate which was totally pointless at all to argue. But what was certain was that if you wanted to go through it, even though it was a shortcut to certain places, you either had to be one of them or come out quite a bit different from when you enter, or perhaps the shortcut would cause you a bit more time compared to when you take the main route.

And now, even though it was day, Kelf and Lin were walking in such an alley. Shortcuts. That was the reason why people would want to go through it, but not for them. They hated crowds. The alley, even though was full of the ‘undesirables’, still proved to be an area which had much lesser people than the main streets. It was also, a bit more quiet. It usually was more active in the night, for reasons people always thought they knew.

They had wanted to search for the posters of the competition, but then realized that the crowd in front in the middle of the street would probably cause them to stand in the same spot for quite sometime. It made walking very difficult. And so, they went into that road.

But as both were walking, the 2 of them met a few gangsters who thought Lin was pretty. They started to gather around and surrounded the 2 of them. The girl became visibly upset and afraid and hid behind the man. Not that it was useful, since they were surrounded. Maybe it provided her a bit of psychological comfort.

‘Hey pretty girl, what are you doing in such a place? This is not a very good place for a pretty young girl to be at,’ one of them said.

All the while Kelf said nothing while Lin tried to helplessly fend them off.

Kelf stared at the gangsters and tried to say something but before he could say it out, they asked, ‘What are you looking at? Trying to be a hero? There are more of us here and you are alone. Scram now before we change our mind. We are in a good mood now and we don’t want to spoil it.’

Lin cried desperately and weakly for Kelf’s help when one of the guys grabbed her hand.

‘AHH!! Help me!’

She grabbed his arm in a desperate measure to plead for his help.

But he looked at her with a face with no emotion and said, ‘Don’t play around for too long. We are rushing for time.’

Then he walked away from the people and continued his way, leaving an almost crying Lin behind. The gangsters said that she would be better off with them than with the coward and tried to drag her into a deeper part of the alley with them by force.

Watching Kelf disappearing out of the alley to the main street, Lin knew that the man would not come back and save her.

She gave a sigh and then said, ‘You idiot. What kind of gentleman are you? Leaving a poor girl behind to defend herself.’

Then Lin said to the gangsters, ‘This is no fun at all. Let me go, I don’t want to play anymore.’

‘Hey hey, you can’t just say you want to go. We haven’t played enough. In fact, we haven’t even started!’

The guys then attempted to drag her away more forcefully now that she really resisted.

She gave a small smile and said, ‘You are definitely going to regret this.’

She hit the person grabbing her hand on the stomach with her elbow. The scene changed.

She went to Kelf and asked, ‘Couldn’t you show some manliness and help a defenceless lady in trouble? Aren’t you supposed to protect me? You told me you would protect me!’

She pointed a finger at his face.

Kelf looked at her, and then to the group of gangsters on the floor crying out in pain and turned back to her, saying, ‘But you don’t look helpless at all. Also, I have absolute faith in your ability to get out of the situation.’

Her face turned stony, her mouth opened and tried to say something but closed it again.

Then she gave him an exasperated look and asked, ‘Couldn’t you be more zealous about your mission to protect me? You should be worried and jealous that some other people are taking notice of your beautiful partner here. What if something really happen to me? I am afterall a girl! You totally spoilt my mood. You are such a bore!’

Then they walked out of the narrow alley.

‘I’m hungry,’ Lin said.

‘But you just had breakfast.’

‘That was hours ago! It is past lunch hour now! A few more hours and we will be at dinner. And you only gave me a piece of moldy bread! I want to eat something decent. I know you have money for a few buns. Don’t be stingy.’

‘If we use up the money now we are going to be left with totally no money. Do you want to starve just in exchange for a nice meal?’

‘Don’t worry. I have absolute faith in your ability to generate money. You have never let me starve before, though you almost never give me a decent meal. I know I’m too important for you to let me starve.’

‘Is that your way of getting back at me for just now?’

With an innocent look like that of a child, she exclaimed, ‘Why would I do that? That thought never crossed my mind! Really, I’m not as petty as you think, right? I’m doing this for your own good too. You need a decent meal too. Come on, let’s go to an inn nearby. You can order some food there and listen to other people’s conversation. I’m sure all of them are talking about the competition you want to find out about. No place better to collect information than a gathering point for people. Quick, thank me for my great idea and consideration for your health. Say ‘thank you’ to me!’

Suddenly a girl carrying a doll jumped out from another side alley to the main street, shouting, ‘I told you I don’t want to go! You are just embarrassing yourself!’ and knocked Lin over.

Both Lin and Xue were lying on the ground.

Lin shouted, ‘Look where you are going!’

But Xue immediately got up and told Kelf and Lin, ‘Please protect me from that guy who is coming. He is trying to kidnap me!’

With that she ran away. A moment later Xel appeared from the side alley and looked left and right for Xue. He saw her and ran after her. Lin stuck out a foot and tripped Xel. He fell to the ground and looked up at her.

‘What are you doing?’

‘What am I doing? You are going to kidnap a girl and asked me what am I doing?’

Of course, just coming out of an alley herself, Lin believed everything that the girl had said. Would one trust a girl trying to escape from a man or trust a man trying to catch a girl, adding the fact that both of them came out of a similar alley she had just gone through?

‘Ah? I don’t get what you mean. Kidnap? Kidnap which girl?’

‘Don’t act innocent! The girl who just jumped out of the same place as you said you are kidnapping her!’

Xel did not say anything for a moment, then he pointed at Xue who was getting further and then pointed at Lin.

‘Don’t point at me!’ Lin said.

Then Xel got up and ran after Xue again. Lin tried to stop him but Kelf held her back.

‘I think you will be good friends with her if you see her again.’

‘What are you talking about? Let me go! The man is going to catch the girl!’

Kelf let her go and she went after Xel, but both Xel and Xue were out of her sight.

Lin went back to Kelf and said, ‘It is all your fault! You didn’t even do anything to stop them! What do you think will happen if the man caught the girl?’

‘Don’t worry, it won’t happen. Can’t you tell the girl is just playing around?’

‘I don’t believe you.’

‘Then you can wait and see, that is if you happen to meet them again, which I don’t think so.’

‘Of course I won’t get to meet them again, the man would have already caught the girl. You are responsible if that girl’s life is ruined at such a young age.’

A small girl was standing behind a man who was holding a dead woman. There was snow lightly falling down on all 3 people. It was not a heavy snow, but despite their thick clothing, it felt very cold. So cold their hands and their bodies were trembling.

The scene changed.

She looked up, and saw in front of her a faceless man with an outstretched arm toward her. She took the hand. She knew who that person was, even without seeing the face. Because these 2 scenes are 2 of the many she could never forget. In fact she saw them quite often, especially on cold nights.

Lin woke up suddenly, opening her eyes. Sitting up, she saw Kelf across the other side of the room still sleeping. She looked up the room to the ceiling. The ceiling was in a bad condition. The room they were in was not exactly a room. It was just a deserted house in the middle of nowhere. There was only one room, which looked like it housed every single activity the owner had when he or she was still living in here.

She closed her eyes again. The floor was cold and hard. She got used to sleeping on the hard floor ever since she started running around all over the places in the part of the country she was in, which was the south part of it. But she did not get used to the cold. Was there even such a thing as getting used to the cold? Or perhaps the cold did not come from the floor.

She saw the dead woman again, lying in the arms of that same man. She shook her head to clear away the image in her head. Lying back down again, she tried to sleep. But she could not get to sleep. The image was too vivid. She tossed around restlessly. She sat up again.

Across the room, still closing his eyes, Kelf said, ‘Go to sleep. It is only a dream.’

Lin said, ‘Not really.’

With that she gave up sleeping and went out of the house.

Staring at the cloudy night sky which somehow turned the sky red, and feeling the wind on her face, she rubbed her shoulders for warmth and whispered to herself, ‘Day is still so long away. Sometimes I even wondered if all this would ever end. Everything felt so long ago.’

The short sleeve top and her short skirt did not really provide any protection against the wind. It felt really cold. No matter how much she rubbed her hands and her shoulders, the warmth seemed like it would never get to her. So cold. Why was it so cold?

Feeling her necklace, she said again, ‘You didn’t even take my present before you go. So impolite of you.’

Kelf, still on the bed, opened his eyes. He thought back to the past.

‘Lin, you should go and get your own life. Don’t follow me around anymore. I will visit you from time to time. There is no point following me. You are only wasting your life. You are only young once. Don’t waste your youth over such a reason. Sticking with me is pointless for you.’

Lin hit his head hard and said angrily, ‘What are you talking about?! I will follow you no matter what. How can I just leave you alone like that? Don’t even assume I forgot how loneliness feels like. Don’t ask me to do something like leaving you alone. I won’t talk to you the next time you said something like that!’

It was back in the room in the middle of the night.

With his face expressionless, Kelf thought to himself, ‘Thank you, you silly girl.’

That little girl that time had thought of him instead of herself.

She had asked ‘How can I just leave you alone like that?’ instead of ‘How can you leave me alone?’

She had been worried for him. He stood there for a while, staring at her, with her determined eyes that said, ‘Don’t you dare go off alone.’ staring back at him.

Knowing that he could not change her mind, he said to that little girl, ‘Then I will be counting on you to take care of me.’

In the morning, Kelf found Lin sleeping outside the house. He wore a white robe. It looked very odd, considering the era they were in. They were in the modern era, but he was still wearing that kind of thing. In actual fact, that robe fitted a female more than a male. Although he was not cross-dressing, and that a guy could actually wear it, the robe fitted a woman better.

Lin had been sitting on the floor and thinking about the past, slowly falling asleep. Leaning on the wall, arms hugging her legs and her head resting on her knees, she was muttering something in her sleep. He looked at her face for a moment, like how a mother would stare at her sleeping child.

He woke her up and asked her to eat some breakfast. Lin stared at their breakfast and said nothing. It was moldy bread and leftover food from yesterday. In short, that was food one would eat only when there was no food left. She ate it without saying anything. The day she made the decision to follow Kelf, she had already expected this to happen. They set off not to earn money or to find a good life. They only needed money and food to complete their goal.

How long would it take? She did not know. Maybe they never would be able to reach their goal.

But then a goal is a goal. No matter how stupid it may be, it gives a person a reason to live. A human needs a reason to live. If there is no reason and there is no purpose, then the person’s life is wasted. Not that if you chase after some stupid goal your life would be meaningful, but at least you will not be wasting your life achieving nothing at all.

Yes, for this goal she had given up a good life and replaced it with a poor life, traded comfort for hardship. But she did not regret it. Not once had she complained. He had asked her to leave him to find a good life, or at least to live a life a normal human would live. He had warned her about the life ahead. But it did not turn her away.

Because to her, bonds were the most important things in the world. There was nothing in this world that could replace the bonds she had. Afterall, she only had that one bond left.

Perhaps, on that day it was not she who had helped him, but he who had saved her from a life of loneliness. She never thought about what would life be if on that day she had went off on her own, because that would be meaningless. What was meaningful was about the life ahead.

On that day, Kelf had told her, ‘Whenever you feel it is time to leave, you may go. I won’t hold you back and waste your life.’

In return for that, he got a punch at his face. After that, he never said anything more about her going off on her own.

‘We need to find a job to do,’ Lin said.

‘Then let’s go to town later. We might find something to do. I heard from the rumors that there is some sort of competition going around and that the prize for winning is pretty good.’

‘How good?’

‘Enough to last us for a year if we eat normal food, much more if we eat this moldy bread everyday.’

Lin looked at him and said, ‘I am going to kill you if you get the money and treat me to moldy bread for years.’

And after their breakfast, they left the deserted house in the middle of nowhere and headed to town. The sun had risen. It was the start of a new day.

It was the military headquarters. In the middle of a large compound with many buildings surrounding it, stood a large castle. That castle was something like a landmark. It was very tall.

In fact it was the tallest building in the region. It was built that way, with guards standing at the top, observing the activities outside the border. This castle was built at the border.

During the time this structure was built, the country was at war with a neighboring nation. Although mountains separated its nearest neighbor from it, the natural barrier did not stop the foolish humans from killing each other.

Most of the time, people fought not because they wanted more resources to build up their country or get more land for the people. Usually they fought because the idiot sitting at the top got crazy and decided that peace at night could not make him sleep.

Probably sitting at the top would get you a disease similar to insomnia that could only be cured by hearing the screams and shouts of fellow humans, by smelling the scent of blood of your own kind and feeling the sense of accomplishment when your own sword cut through the armor into the flesh of the enemies, or a fellow soldier, if he got unlucky. Who knows?

But for now, there was peace. The neighboring country had not attacked for quite a number of years. The reason? The people inside that castle had shown to the world that if they started the next war, the enemy would disappear forever from the surface of the earth.

How powerful were they? Not many people knew. They had actually planned to start a world war. In every country there were always people like that, up to the current period of time.

Maybe the person at the top just wanted to make history. Whatever the case, although they wanted to start a world war, they had not actually attacked a single country. But one thing was for sure, the people inside the castle were busy dealing with something so urgent they have to put off the plans for world domination even though they had the power to do so.

It was not an exaggeration. Whether it was by pure co-incidence or not, this country really did have enough power to take down any country they want. Never in history had that happened before. Ever since humans started making records of their activities and called these records ‘history’, any powerful nation can be taken down if the others allied themselves against it.

Not this one. Not this time. In a single battle, they had proven their point. From that particular battle onwards, no one dared to touch them. They could only hope the urgent problem inside that castle never got solved, because once it was solved, the whole world would unite under one crazy commander. There would be no such thing as countries, because in that world, there was only one country. It would be a time when all humans would finally unite.

It was said that long ago humans were united, speaking one language and helping one another. So united to the extend they wanted to build a tower to reach the heavens.

But this round, if humans came together and unite under one leader, how would it be like? Bliss or disaster? Whatever the case, other nations definitely do not want that to happen.

Even though they did not attack, they had been busy building up their military strength. They were not that stupid to attack first, but they were hoping they could at least defend themselves. The defenders always have the advantage in battles.

Inside the big castle, the Commander was discussing with his subordinates about that year’s competition to choose the elite soldiers for the military. At one look they did not look a bit like commanders.

Their looks ranged from the average commoners to being ridiculous. Not only because they did not wear uniforms, the clothes they were wearing also confirmed that. The clothing was made of coarse materials, and they looked old.

The Commander was a short guy. He was only as tall as the average woman. A head of short grey hair which was not styled in any way, a plain t-shirt and long pants which were too long for him, he looked like an overage kid. But if you looked carefully, he had a pair of grey eyes. It looked strange considering that the normal human eye color is either blue or green.

They were wrapping up the discussion and set a date. ‘Next month, on the 14th day, we will start the competition. This year, the 3 of you will go in and play a bit too. Make sure all 3 of you filter out those not worthy. I only want the best. Last year’s winners were all trash. The military is going to collapse if all we have are those kind of people,’ the Commander told his 3 sub-commanders.

Of course, the Commander held all the military power of the nation, and served the King. They said that the King was there for show and to implement the policies for domestic affairs, because in actual fact the King might have to fear the Commander instead of the other way round.

‘What if this year we actually lost?’ one of the subordinates asked with an ‘innocent’ face. ‘We are not invincible you know.’

‘Then I can chop off your head and give your place to the person who wins you.’

He had said ‘person’ instead of ‘man’, because he did not subscribe to the view that a woman would not win a man in a fight. Not because he was a firm believer of equal gender capabilities, but because he saw for himself how a single woman single-handedly proved to his whole military through undeniable skill and power that sex got nothing to do with fighting.

It did not matter to him who would win this event. All he wanted was to get the really good people into his service. If they were not for him, they would most likely be against him.

Not that there was a manpower shortage in the military, he just did not want any potential resistance.

‘Ah! So cruel. Don’t you know how to treat your men well?’ the other said.

‘Just go and get the things done and stop bothering me with nonsense, the 3 of you.’

‘If it makes you happy,’ the third person said.

‘Before I forget, the place of this year’s event would be ‘here’.’

The Commander pointed at a point on the map.

‘Go think of something that can fit in the location here.’

‘So far? Why there?’ one of the subordinates asked.

‘Because she wants it that way. In a rare appearance, she came just now and specifically asked for it to be held there.’

The other three stopped moving for a moment. They had not expected that. Locations usually were at the same place. This year’s event was to be held in a far away place. Why?

‘What was she thinking?’

‘No idea. She did not say. I figured it would be a waste of time to argue with her something she would insist upon since she came all the way in here to tell me that.’

The other three did not like it, but if their superior, the Commander did not reject it, they supposed they could not say anything much either.

Orders were given out to post the notice for the competition in all cities. It was open to the public to sign up.

‘No obligation to sign on with the military if selected but will have a lot of money and opportunities for the top 3 winners,’ the first subordinate held a copy of the notice and read aloud.

His name was Rif. With spiky hair at the top of his head and hair long enough to reach his shoulders at the back, his sense of fashion was always ridiculed by his 2 friends. He wore a sleeveless shirt with pants which length reached only to his ankle. The light colors of his clothes matched him, since he was fair. Yes, fair was the word to describe him. He was even fairer than a girl. Maybe, when he walked outside, the girls may thought it strange that a guy would have complexion like that, but then deep down in their hearts they might have wished that they too could have his fairness. His shoelaces were untied and went everywhere when he walked.

‘What kind of crap advertisement is this? Can’t you come up with a better one?’ Rif asked.

‘I don’t mind giving you the job if you can do it better,’ the second person said.

His name was Bor, and his hair was spiked all round his head. Being almost on the opposite side of the skin color spectrum, Bor was extremely tanned. And unlike the thin Rif, he was somewhat muscular and his body well toned. You know you would not want to get into a fight with him when you take one look at his body, unless you have a higher level of combat power which had already exceeded stage 2. And of course, with an oversized t-shirt and pants, he looked like an overage child trying to keep up with the latest fashion.

‘We are not selling something or setting up a company. We are giving people a chance to join the elite squad of the military. Only those who had been interested from the start will join. Those that are not interested in the first place won’t come out and fight just because your advertisement lines are fanciful you moron.’

‘This year the competition is set to be more difficult so that only the best will be picked. What a waste of my time, we still have to go down personally and take away all those not suitable for military,’ the last person said, and his name was Tor.

Only he dressed decently. His pony-tailed hair reached the shoulder of his short sleeve collar shirt, and beneath his long trousers you could see a part of his high-cut shoe that reached over the top of his ankle. But of course his pants covered that part of the shoe. There was a simple design of lines on his shirt, although no one knew what did it represented. Perhaps it was just a random inspiration from the designer.

‘Why did that idiot send us all down? Any one of us should be enough. As if the work we have now is not enough. And now because of her we have to go all the way down that far,’ Tor continued to complain.

‘Why would I care? He got someone to cover the work for us and we get an opportunity to play.’

‘You cannot really trust our substitutes to do a good job. But then since the situation is already decided, then just go there and play. Don’t worry about something that might not even happen,’ Rif cut in.

The competition notice were then pasted everywhere on the walls of the streets. Xel and Xue were shopping when soldiers came plastering the news on the wall of a crowded alley. Both went with the crowd to see the news. After seeing the poster, Xel looked like he was thinking and deciding something, and then turned back at Xue with a smile.

‘It is time to earn some money don’t you think?’ he said.

‘You think it is so easy? People everywhere will be seeing this notice and you will not be the only one going for it. Don’t embarrass yourself there.’

‘Well well, there is the possibility of winning right? Don’t deny yourself a chance to get more money. The orphanage needs money you know. Plus you can go test your skills with other people there. It is good. So, that’s it we will go. We will just aim for the third prize so that no one will bother us when there is a first and second. Ok let’s go sign up when the registration period is open.’

‘Hey don’t decide for me! I didn’t say I wanted to go!’

And there was a one-sided argument as they went off doing their own stuff.