A few hours later
The team reached Orvued, a river harbour in the Yeld mainland late in the evening. The students were accommodated in a relatively cheap hotel, but it had the necessary things and everyone had their own rooms. Soon after they settled in, Mikasa, Eren and Armin decided to explore the place around. Soon after, Jean and Sasha decided to tag along. They picked a local guide named Marco Bott to show them around
"I wonder what we'll get to see in this city…" said Armin
"I wonder what FOOD I'll get here!" said Sasha excitedly
All of them had a sweat drop
"I really want to see what kind of traditional dresses and weapons they use." Said Mikasa
"Well all of you are in luck today, 'cause the traditional 13-day festival has been going on for 5 days and there are multiple stalls in the town square with everything you want!"
The town square was a large space with grey stone floors surrounded by beautiful stone buildings of the same kind on all sides. The stalls were set up the corners of the area. There were stalls for food, dresses, toys and games. Sasha left to try out all the food in the stalls as soon as she reached, dragging the group along with her. After they were stuffed with food till their throats, they tried out a few games like shooting, string lottery, Water coin drop, spin the wheel and find the ball. It initially began with everyone playing, but it always boiled down to Jean and Eren having a competition with neither side backing down till Mikasa pulled Eren back by the ear once she lost her patience.
As they went along exploring the festival, Marco spotted an old man in a green robe and a white zuchetto. He also had a walking stick
"Elder Nick!"
The man in question turned to see Marco with a group of people. Marco then gestured the others to follow him as he went up to the man
"Guys, meet Elder Nick. He's the owner of the traditional artefacts shop. He's also the head of the committee that organizes this event every year."
"Traditional artefacts?" Mikasa asked in interest
"Yes. A display of all the crafts from all the surviving industries in Yeld. It's a growing place, since we're still discovering new things in this field everyday." the old man said
"Can we see it?"
"Yes of course."
The group then went for a small shop near the stalls where everyone began seeing all the busts and toys. Nick then said
"Although we have found different items across the island, I'm afraid we still haven't found the stories behind them. But I'm sure you archeologists can find that out in due time."
Armin turned around in slight surprise "How did you know we were archeologists? We weren't even dressed like them."
"We've been seeing archeologists come and go in this island for a while now. Whenever they look at an object of historical importance, they have a glint in their eyes that's impossible to miss."
Eren then came to Nick with a shiny white figurine of a mother hugging her new-born child
"Ojii-san, I'll take this. How much is it?"
"Eren, I think that's a bit expensive for our budget, don't you think? We'll need to be afford money for other stuff." Mikasa said
Eren looked at Mikasa and then back at the figurine and then thought for a few seconds.
"You know what? I think you're right about that. Now if I'll just put it back…"
Eren then slipped and dropped the figurine
"Eren!" Mikasa screamed
All of them feared that the figurine would break, but to their surprise, it stayed completely intact, to their relief
Mikasa went up to Eren and scolded him "Eren, how could you be so reckless! One wrong move and you could have broken that thing!"
"But I didn't right?"
"Even still-"
Armin, who was observing the figurine on the ground closely, called out to him
"Hey Eren, could you pass me that?"
Eren went up to pick the figurine but Mikasa stopped him and did it herself.
Armin then examined the idol closely
"Hey Armin, what's wrong?" Sasha asked
"Not a single scratch…It's not ceramic…or marble…this idol is expensive but not as much as diamond…it's not just shiny…it has the potential to produce light on its own"
Armin then looked at Nick who knew the next question he'd ask
"Ojii-san, what is this thing?"
"You have a keen eye boy. What you hold there…is a special ore found only in Yeld, under parts of the island. Where it comes from is unknown, but it was said that during The Queen's reign it was used as a source of light until light bulbs and other devices came up. And even before, it was used for weaponry. Now it's simply used to make decorative items like this."
"But…this item has potential to be better then light bulbs then why…"
"It's seen in the price of this item. Although this ore is really versatile, it's very limited in quantity and we had no idea where to find more. So we had to resort to other alternatives as the demand kept growing."
As Nick kept explaining the idol, Mikasa's eyes fell on a sword placed a bit inside. She then went to lift it up. The blade was extremely sharp and it seemed like it could cut off a finger with a mere touch. At the same time, it was really thin and seemed brittle compared to other swords. In addition to this, it was extremely light. It looked like a big version of a box cutter blade. Initially she had a little trouble getting used to its weight, but within a minute or two, it seemed like second nature…and Mikasa loved it.
"Hey look what I found!" Mikasa showed the sword off to everyone
"That's a pretty cool sword!" said Eren
Nick backed a little "You might want to be a little careful with that…it's really sharp."
"Yeah I can feel it's sharpness from back here!" said Sasha as she looked at the sword
"It looks intense though." Said Jean
Armin looked at the sword in curiosity
"Ojii-san, about that sword…"
"That's a sword made from Ultrahard steel. It used to be manufactured in factories of major cities, but now there's only one factory in Orvued that makes it limitedly. It's really light and the damage of its strike largely depends largely on the sword's momentum. However, it's really brittle compared to the swords of today, but that's a price to pay for how sharp and light it is. We still don't know why it was used back in the day, with how uncontrollable it can be. Seems like another mystery for you guys"
Eren gave a light smile as he looked at her. As he looked at Mikasa in her tucked white shirt and sword in hand, he suddenly had a slight vision of Mikasa in a brown jacket and pants with blood on her face and a look of rage in her eyes.
"M…Mi..ka…sa…" he said out absent-mindedly
"What is it Eren?" Mikasa asked
When no response came she called him again
"Eren…?"
Eren shook himself and said "Nothing…it's just that…you look really fierce with that sword. Very warrior-like." As he turned his head away a little.
Mikasa studied Eren's face again
"He's seen me kick butt many times but this is the first time he's called me fierce. And that look on his face, he looks dead serious and deep in thought."
However, she couldn't help but blush when he complimented her like that.
A/N: As of Today, All of my exams are done with and we're back with the chapters again! I know I released a chapter a while back, but that was prewritten. So this is the next chapter! I can't believe it's already been a month since I started writing this! As always, I sincerely thank you guys for your love and support. Please do leave your thoughts and suggestions in the R&R section. See you !
