CHAPTER ONE: BEGINNING AND END

It was a cheerful night. Colorful streamers hung about the various houses and stores. Lighted candles of different sizes all boasted their radiance to the dark. Footsteps and voices traveled here and there toward wherever their owners wanted to go and the joyful chatting, yelling and feasting kept the semi-distant desert wolves awake. Yet all the festivities that took place at the largest city in Rune-Midgard seemed to disturbing for a certain individual.

Enter: Ferr Esril, official Assassin, and Enforcer of the Order and Peace of the Strengthener's Guild in Prontera.

The dull room was slightly illuminated by a few small candles. Ferr was standing by a window, looking down on all that was happening. He thought, "What do they have to gain from all this ruckus? Well, good thing it only comes once a year…" He slowly brushed some dust off his cloak.

"Tomorrow. Yes, tomorrow. That will be the day…"

A rooster in a nearby farm sounded the rise of the morning sun. The remains of the feast that took place last night were all cleaned up by some of the city's more diligent people.

Today was a bright day for Prontera. Old men nostalgically talked to each other in a yard. Housewives did household chores or went shopping with their child. Teenage girls happily chatted and gossiped. Little children played topless with the water from a small fountain. A couple of drunkards with hangovers harmlessly staggered home and a party of excited first jobbers set out on an adventure but a strange Assassin kept to the shadowy walls of the city.

Everything about him seemed too neat for the average Assassin. His hair was kempt, his traditional purple Assassin's outfit was clean and unwrinkled and his Katars were tidily sheathed right by his side. Yet strangely, his eyes quickly shifted from one direction to the other.

"A Rogue. He was last spotted vandalizing the guild flags at the center of the city. What say you, Ferr? Up for tracking down this felon?"

"… Violators must be wiped out."

The assassin turned a corner.

"Stop that burglar!" A voice cried out. Ferr saw a woman frantically pointing at a running person. From afar, Ferr could see the reddish garments the person sported. He was a Rogue.

Not wasting any time, he chased the criminal. He didn't bother to see the expressions on the spectators' faces. He just dashed forward at breakneck speed. Everything close by became a slight blur of green and gray.

He saw the Rogue turn an acute corner into an alleyway. Ferr slowed down and followed suit. There was obviously less light, the lane was very narrow and there were more paths that branched off to different places. He raced past, looking into each one in hopes of finding the Rouge, then hesitantly stopped. The target had escaped. Ferr waited in silence for a while then slammed his fist on the wall.

"Aw, upset you didn't find me?" He heard from above. He looked upward and there the rogue was, standing on the ledge of a rooftop. He mockingly said, "Yo, You're that Esril from tha- GUUAAAAH!!" Before shouting in pain.

Ferr was now standing right behind the Rogue. He had cut the person in half with his Katars. The Rouge's torso fell to the ground together with the legs, which Ferr had kicked. Blood flowed from the dispatched body.

The Assassin, still clutching his weapons, was left on top of the roof.
There was nothing left to do but to dispose of the Rogue's corpse and return what he stole.

CHAPTER ONE
END