NOVEL NEXT Chapter 1: Family
New Trier, Intis Empire. Night of March 3, of the year 428. Sixth Epoch, in an unknown alley.
"You can't run forever, Henry!" the masked man shouted as he ran towards the man he called Henry.
"I'm not letting you keep the people of this world believing in lies!" Henry shouted as he kept running down the alley.
"Shit..." Henry said as he reached the end of the alley.
The masked man smiled as he grabbed Henry's neck and leaned over his ear, murmuring something: "It impresses me that you really thought you could escape after stealing the secret files of the church..."
"I w-won't let the Church of Light keep the people of this world believing in a lie!" Henry said as he tried to gasp for air.
"Tsk, you're making it sound like only our church is doing that, think Henry, use your stupid rotting brain for a second! No matter how strong and influential the Church of Light is, we can't keep the mysticism a secret alone, you fool!" The masked man said it as if he was stating the most obvious thing in the world.
"Well anyway, your little delusion of being the savior of the people or whatever you tried to do has already ended, now give me the documents you stole." The masked man said as he released Henry's neck, who could finally breathe.
"Hehehehehe... You really think I would keep the document with me while being chased? I threw it in some random place days ago!" Henry said as he showed his middle finger to the masked man. "I don't have any use for you. Even if you tried to use divination, it'll be a useless effort since I don't know where I threw it either." Henry said as he kept laughing at the masked man's face.
- "Ugh... What have I done to deserve this..." The masked man murmured to himself. "Well, you're right, I don't have any use for you." The masked man said as he walked away.
The masked man jumped as high as an entire floor of a typical building in the lower-middle class areas of Trier, around 3 to 5 meters.
As the masked man jumped, Henry's immediate thought was to run, but as soon as he took a step forward, the masked man landed behind him, holding a dagger that seemed common.
The masked man kicked Henry's right leg, making him immediately fall down. "I don't have any further use for you." He said as he stabbed Henry's stomach with the dagger. "And neither does the world has." He said as he pulled the dagger out and walked away.
"You didn't need to do all that before killing him, you know?" said the man with dark hair at the entrance of the alley.
"Jasper, that moron just gave me more work to do. He deserved it," said the masked man said as he gave the dagger to Jasper.
"Yeah, sure, Clark. Let's go back to the church. The captain is furious. I can't wait to see his reaction after you tell him you couldn't get the documents back, hehe." Jasper said as he walked towards the carriage and opened the door for the masked man.
"At this point, you could just straight up consider me a dead man." Clark said as he entered the carriage, took off the mask revealing his face, and lit up a cigarette.
Jasper smiled as he put his hand over his left eye and said, "May the light guide you."
Clark repeated the movement as he said,: " May the light guide you."
"And what about the companions of that fool?" Clark said as he stretched his back.
"We caught almost all of them, and we retrieved the other stolen documents." Jasper replied.
"What is inside those documents for them to risk their lives for them?" Clark asked as he looked around his clothes to see if there was any blood on them.
"The one I retrieved contained a sequence 6 formula. I don't know about the one Henry had, but if I had to guess, I would say it is something similar." Jasper replied.
...
New Trier, Intis Empire. Afternoon of March 24, 428, Saturday.
Saint Salazar Street No. 83, Burey's Villa.
A man walked toward one of the rooms on the second floor of the villa.
He wore an all-black attire that looked like a high-quality suit, but if one looked closely enough, it was obviously cheap. His short black hair was combed to the right and looked quite greasy.
The Intis Empire was founded in the year 53 of the Sixth Epoch by Empress Sienna, who died in the year 59. Even though her reign didn't last long, her impact on all of Trier's society lives on. One of those impacts was on the fashion industry.
Because of the influence of the Church of Light, the people didn't care about colors or styles, wearing usually light clothes that didn't restrict movement or work. These clothes were usually brown or a yellowish shade of white. This changed, especially in noble society, because the Empress Sienna, on her wedding day, instead of wearing the normal wedding dress of that time, which was long and white, wore a red dress with a cleavage on the back and a belt that held a sword. Her husband, Emperor Mahose Sienna, wore a red suit, going against the norm of wearing a black suit, and took his wife's name as his last name.
After that, the people of Intis, especially Trier, began to use bright colors such as green, yellow, and red more.
The nobles of Intis began using the colors of their family's flag to indicate where they were from, like the Sienna family, who are famous for their dark red attire, or the Burey family, who use purple. It became an unspoken rule of the nobles to not use other families' colors. Because of that, the servants of the nobles could only wear neutral colors that didn't indicate any family, such as black or white.
The servant knocked three times on the door and said, "Lady Rebecca, the materials you asked for arrived this morning."
A girl with light brown hair, wearing a light purple dress, opened the door and said, "Bring them to my room. Also, bring me a glass of water, five mint leaves, and chamomile oil."
"Yes, Lady Rebecca," the servant said as he closed the door.
After the servant brought the items she asked for, he brought two closed boxes and left the room after closing the door.
Rebecca opened her jewelry drawer and took out a piece of paper. She opened the two boxes. One had an eye that seemed to belong to a sea creature, and the other had feathers of an unknown animal. These feathers seemed to have swirls in them.
Rebecca took the eye out and placed it in an empty glass. "A spectral shrimp eyeball," she said as she placed the eye in the glass.
"Five feathers of a swirly-feathered owl," she said as she placed the feathers in the glass.
"One hundred milliliters of water, five mint leaves, three drops of chamomile oil," she said as she placed the items in the glass.
After placing every item, the items inside melted, forming a strange liquid. This liquid had what looked like swirls all around it.
Rebecca held the glass to her lips as she whispered, "Mike, I'll find a way to cure you, no matter what I have to do."
After that, she drank the entire liquid as her green eyes widened.
....
New Trier, Intis Empire, Night of March 3, 428, Church of Light.
"We retrieved almost every stolen item, with the exception of one document that is currently missing." Clark told the Captain of the Lumières.
"The document contains a sequence 9 potion formula and has to be brought back to the church immediately." said the captain while dismissing them.
"I can't believe this happened!" said the captain while throwing papers at the wall. One of those papers read:
Missing item:
Document containing the formula of the sequence 9 of the Delusional Pathway.
Potion name: Delusional
Formula:
Main Ingredients: A spectral shrimp eyeball; five feathers of a swirly-feathered owl.
Supplementary Ingredients: 100 milliliters of water; 5 mint leaves; 3 drops of chamomile oil.
Level of threat: 5.