The LightProtectors: New Adventure

Chapter 1

"plunk, plunk, plunk ..."
Drop by drop, every drop of water slowly dripped down evenly on a boy's face. it made his face feel cold and after a while it was able to make his closed eyes slowly open.
"plop", a drop fell right into his eye causing him to sit up and rub it. he blinked his small eyes and gave a long yawn. With the small black eyes of a sleep-deprived man, he looked up and saw a gray sky as if it was about to rain.

"Another day like any other..." - he thought.

The boy stood up from where he was lying, a pile of plastic bags stacked in the corner of a dead-end alley with dusty walls. He quickly exited the alley and looked out onto the street. Scattered everywhere were beggars, homeless people and criminals. The place the boy was staying, called the cursed town "Alfran", a place of refuge for all the homeless people from all over the empire. The boy himself does not know when he appeared here, he only knows that since he can remember, he has been cared for by an old homeless woman who later died of malaria. The boy was twelve years old this year, according to the old woman, counting from the time she found him in a cloth bag in the woods near town.

"Growling..." -The boy's stomach is groaning

"I need to find something to eat"

The boy quickly walked along the path, softly, past the people or the cold corpses lying on the ground. He stooped to avoid the gazes of criminals or the attention of beggars, passed rotten wooden houses or ragged, empty shacks and headed straight for the center of town.
Since the town is quite small in size, it took our boy less than five minutes to get where he needed to go, at least he thought.
In the center of where he was standing, there was a cobblestone tower with a rather large clock at the top. It was a sundial, but because the sky was covered with clouds, it didn't work at all.

"Growl. . ."

"Looks like I'll have to wait a little longer" -He thought

What is the boy waiting for? He was waiting for the food delivery team to arrive.
Yes, even though this place is full of homeless or criminals, it is given a single meal at twelve o'clock in the afternoon. For everyone, it might not be enough, but for the people of this town, it was like a lifesaver to get them through the day.

And the same goes for the boy.

As time passed, more and more people gathered in the square, the stench from their bodies mixed and rose, making the surrounding air extremely uncomfortable for the boy. He waved his hand in the air hoping it would lessen the unpleasant smell even though it was pointless. But everything changed immediately since he saw the red color from a corner of the imperial flag looming behind a house. The boy darted out, wriggling his way through the stinking rags, but he didn't wince. Since others had also seen the color of hope, he knew that slowing down meant all would be gone and he would starve to death. Same with the corpses lying on the road he passed when he got here. The chaos that the smell of food brings seems indescribable. shouting, fighting, stomping on each other, threatening, cursing, moaning, calling for help,. . . All mixed together in a foul atmosphere, um ... pretty "bad" overall. Struggling through the crowd, he finally reached the food distribution table, where knights in silver armor were guarding and large men were distributing cold radish soup.
All the pushers were stopped and pushed away by the knights, so after a few minutes the initial chaos was gone, replaced by two lines of people waiting for their turn. During the food distribution, both in the past and in the present, the boy never heard a word from the knights or the food dispensers, they just did what they needed to do and quickly left. across the only stone bridge connecting this town to the outside world. As for the food, the boy didn't know why but from the stories of the homeless people who joined later, it seems that the first ruler of the empire celebrated the day when the empire was founded and gave food to everybody, including the homeless. Later, under the present benevolent king, a favor was granted, turning the cursed town of "Alfran" into a food distribution for the homeless, and the place where he lives now.
Having received the meal, the boy quickly left. With both hands holding an old wooden plate containing precious cold soup, he couldn't run. He was afraid that he would be robbed if he didn't hurry. Food is as precious as gold, so being robbed is a regular occurrence and is never too much to be careful. He passed the crowd, who were fighting over the soup plates.