Dawn Of Twilight

The following years weren't easy going.

He was finally allowed to ask a lot of questions, filling most holes in his vocabulary and grammatical error, and starting to finally learn about his family and its surroundings.

First, he learned that they were living in the village called Amai, which was in fact one of the numerous villages situated under the jurisdiction of minor a Noble. Which in turn answers to the Northern Kingdom.

His parents never explained clear details concerning their neighboring villages or counties, except to be wary of the villagers and never speak to anyone he didn't know or strangers. They only knew them through Christopher who had once traveled outside their village, nor did he ask much or care about knowing much outside his business.

In their eyes and from their explanation, the King was like a mythical Greek deity, whereas they put all their faith and worries on the village head. Not only was his administration a fair justice and pay taxes on the village, but he loves intricate art and would show them off during the Amai festival as a guest of honor.

His parents never mentioned to him anything else, like the rare land fighting outbreak, wars, robbery, and killing that constantly occurs. They only resulted in telling him tales he had dismissed as nonsense.

Tobi was really dissatisfied with such little informations. He wanted to know everything about his surroundings, like if there were organizations for beings like himself out there.

Well, he didn't expect much from them, they were just normal humans, to begin with, with no such abilities. So his hopes on them on such matters weren't high. Even if they knew something it was either they would be dead by now, or kept it as a secret to themselves till their grave, because of fear.

He wanted to learn more about the history, anything that could give him an edge about what to expect from this new reality of his.

Unfortunately, it was clear they knew little and cared less about it. To make matters worse, he couldn't pose questions he was not supposed to let out from his mind.

At least his family tree was quite simple to understand. Christy and Christopher had gotten married at 28 and 30, by village standards, they were even going past the age of getting married.

With Christopher being an only child of his mother, and his father a seventh child from his seventh wife. He could only inherit the little portion of land when his father and mother had died, Christy had gotten pregnant rather quickly after the marriage, giving birth to their first son Junior, that had passed away.

In fact, most of that information might be wrong, caused they claim old age made them forget a few things. The information was from constant pestering, his question was mostly limited to' What this? Why is that?' 

Spending more and more time with the rest of his family, he also discovered that he was called a demon child respectively by the whole village, that why he had been previously attacked. Despite them being like a normal child, they were born with a weird golden snake biting it tail Mark's on their body's.

Tobi sat legs cross beside Christopher, Christy, and Bell. After a long discussion, the couple had come together, with their final decision on letting their children know real the truth about their baby brother Tobi, and why he was being called a demon child, and what also happened to their first child.

After all, they didn't want to lose their second son. And seeing the villagers look, and gossiping at their child wasn't something pleasant, they wanted him to know the truth and prepare himself to be brave, though they also planned to escape from the village soon.

A New tale begins.

•••••

Grey

"Didn't grandpa say a meteor shower signifies the fall of a powerful treasure…" Grey's eyes had an excited glinted, "Though I don't really know what it represents, grandpa says it brings good fortune. Such a great opportunity is hard to come by! 

In no time at all, this area will be crowded with various merchants. I have to be the first to get the good stuff… who knows, I might walk the path of a merchant and become a respected noble!"

From the perspective of this young child, those merchants who passed by the village once in a while, with loads of big cargo's were amazing and extremely rich. The knights nearby were even more and more of a big deal.

"What if it a legendary item?…" Grey's eyes were sparkling like stars, and some saliva couldn't help drools from the corner of his mouth.

"Don't those wandering soldiers always talk about these in their stories? While the heroes are young, they'll pick up some deity treasure by chance and thus walk the path of destiny. That's so cool…" With his reverence towards heroes, Grey mustered his courage and entered the dense forest.

Within the dense forest, patches of dried yellow grasses slightly covered a rusty and mottled broken sword that seemed to had been buried there for years. It was concealed by the mud soil, threads of dark red ŀuster flashed on the blade of the sword, revealing its rusty marooned-colored edges.

The forest slightly rustles with sets of loud and rush footsteps, following which, a boy with a head of curly black hair made his way from the tall grasses of the forest. 

He wore linen clothing that looked tattered and had traces of being mended, showing that his family situation was not very standard.

•••••

Within the shadows, on a large tree a few meters high a dark figure hid over and was watching silently. Clouds of shadows concealed its existence to the point, not even his silhouette would be spotted, even if the whole forest was leveled down.

Its eyes which glinted red in its sanguine halo looked down at the slow-running figure of Grey.

"From his appearance, he should be a child from a village nearby, oh… I could make use of him. It's should not be too bad to gather children on the lowest level of the social hierarchy and the format of their organizations, if his majesty experiments become a success."

•••••

"This should be where the meteor landed… Hic…"

It was already night. The moonlight hue fell through the treetops, and the dark forest was whistling with cold winds. The temperature had evidently fallen quite a bit, and Grey could not help but wrap his arms around himself, which brought a slight warmth to his cold shoulders.

The fear of the unknown as well as the darkness surrounding the forest left him fearful and shivering.

*Huhu!*

Birdcalls were heard from the treetops, immediately causing Grey to jump like a cat that had its tail stepped on. "Who is it! Who's there!"

His sharp voice pierced through the skies, alarming a few black crows.

"Hah…" Grey found his heart was beating as hard as it ever could, to the point that it might even jump out from his ċhėst.

His hands were now clasped together as he prayed inwardly, to his late mother who was a devotee of the gods of their land, to protect and guide him from the hands of any evil person.

"Nothing… there's nothing at all other than a huge charred pit!"

After taking note of this, Grey was very disappointed. Unwilling to admit failure, he rummaged through the area, still mumbling, "How can there be nothing? Where's the legendary weapon? Magic item? Oh, gods, even a few golds or silver are enough…"

••••

"Tsk...Yet another foolish child, with a foolish dream ruled by stupidity!" The figure watched on and judged irritatedly.

"But that I can make use of!"

With this thought, threads of light shone from the sides of the broken sword, exceptionally. Making it glow quite obvious in the pitch-black night.

And as expected Grey's attention spun high, seeing his new trick and Grey's expression, its dark face cranked up a creepy smile, except for his entire face.

•••••

Grey's eyes brightened as he arrived before the broken blade from before.

"The rays seemed to have been produced from this sword…" Grey was rather confident of this, but as he observed the rusted sword as well as the signs of corrosion on the hilt, he was less sure of his theory now.

However, even if this broken sword wasn't any magic artifact, it was still very attractive to Grey.

After all, he had a passion for weapons from the depths of his heart, especially for the likes of magic and fantasies.

"Mm! Blacksmith Uncle Richard could buy it. This is worth at least five coppers! No, ten!"

Grey held this broken sword in satisfaction, the heaviness made him feel extremely pleased.

The sword with only half its original length was much lighter, but Grey's attempts at swinging a couple of moves still failed at doing so.

"Mm! I've made my decision. Even if Uncle Richard gives me five coppers, I won't sell this!"

Grey nodded sure of himself and kept his spoils well, humming nursery rhymes as he returned near the village.

The moment he arrived home, the price of exploring on his own was being taught a lesson by his father, and he was also given a stern warning not to enter the forest again.

This was the key to Grey's life as a merchant or maybe even a knight! How could it be squandered away so easily? This couldn't be allowed, even if the person was his father, Grey stiffened his decision.

With this thought in mind, Grey sneaked back into the house contentedly, as he entered a dreamland daydreaming about being a rich merchant and a valiant hero, while the blackness clouding the outside world never once stopped.

"With orders by the mighty oracle, purge this place of heresy!"

Suddenly, a group of knights encircled the village.

Their metallic armor as well as the runes unique to a glorious organization was intimidating.

This was a shrine, and was also the army of the Holy Shrine! It represented the mouth's piece of the gods' will and was not to be disobeyed!