Heavy Hands

Chapter One

(How could you do this? How could you betray your own king?)

When you remember such thoughts while having dinner, you know things aren't going to end well. This wasn't a rare occurrence either. These thoughts, I recall them all the time. They haunt me, and I wasn't free of them even when I sleep. It was truly a pain.

Here I was, just sitting at the local inn, having my daily meal of bread, potatoes and some meat. As I was enjoying the meal, the waiters and the other people that were gave kept giving me stares as cold as ice, like as if I were some sort of monster or beast. It was because of people like them that I couldn't make myself forget the things I wanted to. The dark, unwelcoming looks, and the whispers were the worst.

I averted my attention to the window. The streets were brightened by lamps, both street lamps and the basic light magic almost everyone was taught so that they could illuminate dark places. It was a weekend today, Freya's Day to be exact, so there were quite a few people on the street. The sky was dark, shiny stars decorating it, along with the full moon, brightening the pitch black void. I quietly wondered what the place would look like if all the lights were turned off and the moon was used to light up the darkness. I was sure it would look pretty amazing.

I left the money for the food on the table and stood up, ready to leave. As soon as I did, all the heads of the people there stared at me again, as if I'm going to kill them if they let their guard down, but they looked away as soon as I tried to make eye-contact. I just sighed and silently left, and felt them release their breath in relief behind my back. There wasn't much I could do, really. It's not like I could change the past so that the people would have a better impression of me...... Well, maybe if I used some magic. Just kidding. That powerful of a spell was absolutely impossible for anyone in this town to practice. You'd have to be like an Archmage or something far stronger than that to cast such a spell. Actually, I didn't even know whether or not such a spell existed!

Okay, enough about spells. Just thinking about magic made my head hurt. I've never been a fan of magic, and I doubt I'll ever be. As I walked back to my place, pondering such thoughts, I noticed some posters on the wall. They seemed kinda new, maybe a day old? Well, I certainly didn't notice them yesterday. They seemed a bit interesting, so I decided to give them a read.

From what I could make out, the new king (who had the reputation of being a very adventurous fellow who loved discovering new things) was telling all adventurers and whatnot to create a team of at least two and sign up for some quest to 'discover new kingdoms and civilizations'. This did manage to pique my interest quite a bit, really. After all the stuff that's happened, I needed some time away from this town. The people here, they weren't letting me forget...... Forget the things I wanted to let go of so badly.

But there was one huge problem. Teams of at least two. Yeah...... Like as if ANYONE would want to team up with who is probably the most hated person in town. Well, I guess the person who hated me the least was the old blacksmith. But he couldn't come with me. Like I said, he was OLD. Like, really old. I didn't even KNOW how old he was.

"Goddammit."

Okay so, now I had to find someone to pair up with. Someone who didn't hate me or would try to murder me the first chance they get, which is mission-near-impossible (what). I decided against stressing too much over this. I was tired, and it would be better for me to get some rest before doing whatever I was planning on doing. I tore off one of the posters from the wall and kept it in my pocket just for good measure. After that I proceeded to walk home and promptly pass out on my bed as soon as my head hit the pillow.

I woke up a bit early the next day. No, wait, I dreamed that I woke up early. In reality, I overslept and woke up at one, one thirty-ish. I quickly took a shower and got dressed, grabbed a bar of chocolate and left the house. Why a bar of chocolate? One, because it was the first thing I found in my freezer. And two, because I like chocolate. Watcha gonna do?