"Oh! It's a customer, please have a look, does anything in your mind you desire to purchase?"

The young man in a black shirt and leather pants did not pay attention to the shop owner, the goods he labeled had it instead.

"I'll……buy…this one. Cost?"

The young man stands before a stall in crowed street. Crowed might not be a perfect term for it, "boatload", might be a better one.

The young man doesn't seem to have a big vocabulary.

"These gloves? 2 silvers. No arguments."

The glove doesn't seem to have any function of warning the users hands, but it does seem to provide protection.

The young man hands over the two silver piece of coins and walks away with the red gloves.

The man had grey hair. He is walking around with his luggage in his hands and over his shoulders.

Probably a foreign man.

(Seriously, I'm in a bit lost here…), he thought.

It's the first time this man ever entered the capital of the Roble Holy Kingdom–– Hoburns

The young man checked the time,

12:10 p.m.

(It's noon already, I've ate lunch though…)

As he turned himself into the alley way, he saw three men sitting deep inside the dark alley way, knives in hand.

The constant usage of the knives are clear that the knives are as dull as any Harem Main Character.

(Well, there goes my shortcut.)

The young man decided to take another path. Since, coincidence may be funny, recently he would be taking an entry exam. Making a name for himself would be a foolish thing to do.

And —— something stopped him from walking away. An arm to be exact.

"Hey kid, you mind coming with us? We have some business that we think you shou……"

The arm felt lighter and lighter. And eventually let go of the young man's body. The owner of the arm collapsed into the ground.

If it was winter, he would have a better falling ground. Back to reality, he fell on the hot road that has been burned by summer.

The young man walked away, leaving the unconscious thug behind.

The footsteps of people pulling him away could be heard. (His friends…). Was one of the answers for that.

Or maybe people in this state is just very kind to help out a stranger that is lying in the middle of the road.

Who cares?

12:30 p.m.

"Oh yeah, I've forgot to tell you, your cousin is coming here to stay for a night. I think…"

The teenage girl, who is eating in the dining room, almost choked out her food in her throat when her mom stated.

"Huh? You never told me that. When's he coming?"

The girl is surprised, well, someone coming to your house without any precautions and messages would be a good reason.

"Not sure."

The two ladies in the living room are having a small chat about this cousin. The sudden knock on the door pulled their attention.

"Well, I guess he's here."

The door opened, what revealed was a young man with a bright smile. A man with grey hair and a rather tidy outfit. His build is similar to a military cadet.

Despite his appearance, he is only two years older that the girl inside the dining room.

That person being Noah. Noah Baraja.

Of course, the girl inside is Neia Baraja. His cousin.

"Nice to meet you, Aunt Mary.

(S/N: Neia's mother's name was never mentioned so I had to come up with one.)

It might be a small sentence, but it has put a lot of pressure on Noah. Well, his communication disorder is slowly getting better but it's still hard for him.

"Oh my! I haven't seen you since you were 5! How much of a man have you grown to?"

Noah smiled, with a bit of laughter behind it. Instinctively taking it as a joke.

Neia, who is in the dining room, could still see something was wrong.

Not his cousin himself. But his hand. Noah's hand is bleeding slightly. Just slightly……

Yet, he tries his best to hide that fact. Why?

(Why is he hiding his injuries? He doesn't want to bother Mom or something?)

Neia decided to stop focusing on random stuff and waved at his cousin who she had never once met.

"Well, tonight you can use the guest room. Neia can show you around the city later."

Noah looked into the guest room, this will be his room for tonight. It's not bad…but it's just a bit dirty because of the lack of cleaning.

(I wonder who does the cleaning here…)

Noah slightly cleaned up the room and set his luggage down. Well, he just moved into a new environment… there will probably be a lot of uncomfortable problems waiting on the way.

"Hmm?"

Noah instinctively looked at his left hand. He wears a ring on his thumb. A spike could be found somewhere around it. Making it easy to stab the enemy or your own finger.

Well, there is blood on the spike so there would be some damage dealt. On Noah's finger that is.

One of his fingers is bleeding, slightly. Cause of injury, he stabbed himself with the ring.

(I should stop doing this, it might be addictive…)

Crack*

The ring on his thumb broke. Splt into two uneven pieces. Cause of destruction, putting too much force on the ring.

Noah's 17 now, he should be able to make decisions on his own. And he decided that he will become a paladin.

(Oh yeah, Neia should show me around the city soon.)

"So, that over there is the city square, and… you can find a lot of bars there, sometimes Inns but there won't be much."

Noah is currently following Neia around the city. Honestly, he would like to walk and explore alone, but the fear of getting lost won over.

"……You're not a guy with much words, right?"

Neia seemed to realize that her cousin doesn't talk much, even when he should.

"Ah… no, I just… can't talk … that well…"

That sentence was forced out of his mouth.

"Ah… I see, sorry for asking a sensitive question. By the way, I've heard from Mom that you want to be a paladin?"

Noah nodded in reply.

Neia, who also wanted to be a paladin, somewhat felt that this cousin have some similarities with her.

To Noah, his cousin felt just like a guide and slowly becoming a huge pain in the ass.

4:30 p.m.(That was literally 3 and a half hours of walking… no wonder Gluck said having a girlfriend was a burden more than a blessing.)

Noah recalled what his friend said 2 years ago.

During the 3 and a half hour period, the just walked around the city and ate some snacks here and there.

Noah also recalled that she took his girlfriend to shopping and ended up with his legs shattered despite training his body since childhood.

"Oh! It's getting late, lets go back… we should get back in time…"

The two younglings returned back to where they began. On the way, Noah found where the paladin school is. So he noted that in his personal note in his mind.

Neia did pay attention to Noah's left hand. The ring earlier was gone. replaced with a red glove on both sides of his hands.

"What happened to him?"

A voice echoed in the dark alley way.

"I d-don't know, he just collapsed and then…"

"Enough… there don't seem to be any damage on his body though… check his insides, now!"

The two unknown man stated to check the interior parts of the man. Upon closer inspection, the man was the same as the one that almost started a scene this noon.

And he just collapsed into the ground without any sign of being injured. Which many people just assumed he was drunk.

Blood splat almost the whole floor. But the two man eventually found the cause of his death.

Cause of death:

Brain Trauma. Literally.

A living fish is inside his brain devouring his brain. Somehow did not bleed from the inside despite his brain being eaten alive. How the fish get in there? The hypothesis is teleportation magic.

The scene in front of the two man was too much to handle. The word "Disgusting" might feel like a walk in the park. "Disturbing" wouldn't even come close to what they have seen during that night.

Two bodies hanging in a room with another one being dead slightly longer than the two have been found several days later when the bodies start to rot.

Two of the three was suicide. The other one remains unknown.