Ethan slowly opened his eyes to find himself in a vast white space with no visible end. He began wandering through this void, searching for an exit. After some time of wandering, he spotted something in the distance. He kept looking in that direction for several moments, trying to figure out what it was. He began walking toward it slowly, and with each step he took, it became clearer and clearer. The closer he got, the more he began to hear a strange crying sound that grew louder and louder. The sound was familiar to him, but he couldn't remember it. He kept approaching until he reached it, only to find it was the same old woman he had seen before. She was collapsed on the ground, crying just like the previous time. Ethan approached her and placed his hand on her shoulder. The old woman stopped screaming, and silence filled the place for a few counted seconds. The old woman didn't move throughout those seconds.
Suddenly, the old woman slowly turned toward Ethan. But when she fully turned her face toward him, Ethan's eyes widened in shock upon seeing her face covered in blackness. Her face was devoid of features with intense black fire upon her face. The old woman placed her hands on Ethan's shoulders, and although she didn't have a mouth, he could hear her voice clearly. Her voice was sharp and echoed as if she were speaking inside a cave: "My child did nothing wrong, yet they killed him! They killed him!" Her voice began to grow a little rougher: "I hate the Katoran Empire, I hate it with everything I have. Everyone hates it, but no one can do anything about it." The old woman began gripping Ethan's shoulders tightly, making him feel anxious and uncomfortable. He tried to remove her hands from his shoulders. He began pulling her hand while she increased the force of her grip on his arm, saying: "No one can do anything about it, no one, no one, no one." She began repeating her words over and over while Ethan struggled to remove her arms from his shoulders, until he managed to remove one of her hands and struck her face, causing her to fall to the ground and release her other grip.
Ethan remained breathing heavily and began taking a few steps backward, moving away from her. He felt something strange in his left arm. He raised his arm and looked at it to see that his fist had filled with blackness. Ethan felt terror and tension as he watched the blackness slowly spread around his arm until it became completely black. He directed his gaze toward the old woman, his face full of worry, to see her still fallen on the ground repeating the same phrase, except she stopped screaming for a moment. Silence filled the place, and nothing remained audible except the sound of Ethan's breathing. The grandmother raised her head toward him and began looking at him with her face full of blackness. Ethan remained tense with sweat dripping from his face. The old woman suddenly spoke in a strange voice, a mixture between her voice and a man's voice: "But... can you do something?"
Ethan began opening his eyes slowly to find himself lying in his bed. He got up from the bed and looked around the room to see that no one was there. He went to the clay jar, poured some water into the cup, and began drinking. After finishing, he headed toward the door and left the hut to see Joseph waiting for him in front of the door. Joseph greeted him saying: "Good morning, you lazy one. Sorry for saying this early in the morning, but Mira asked me to wake you up and bring you to her, so please follow me." Joseph turned around and began heading toward Mira's place with Ethan following him. Along the way, Joseph looked toward Ethan with a slight smile on his face and said: "Well, I don't know if you want to know or not, but Mira asked me to bring you all together to carry out your first mission. It's a first mission, so it won't be too difficult. Most likely it will just be fetching something or exploring some area."
Joseph stopped in front of one of the huts. That hut was different from the rest - it was larger in size with a group of white flowers around it except for the path made of stones that extended along the door. Joseph looked toward Ethan, gave him a light pat on the chest, and said: "So, what do you think of the place? It's good, right?" Ethan paid him no attention and kept looking at the flowers with admiration. Joseph put his hand on Ethan's left shoulder, laughed a little, and said: "Do you like these flowers? They're the most beautiful thing in this simple village." He pointed to the flowers and continued speaking: "The village residents consider these flowers a symbol of hope, kindness, and tolerance, and when they look at them, they feel there is hope in this barren world." The more Ethan looked at these flowers, the more he felt comfort and peace permeating his body. The boy kept looking at them for several minutes until Joseph gave him a light tap to regain his focus. After that, Joseph went to the flower field, picked a rose from it, and gave it to Ethan: "Well, if you really like these flowers, you can take one, but we need to go in quickly because Mira won't be patient to this degree." Ethan took the rose from Joseph and they headed toward the hut.
After entering, they found Jesse, Jenny, and the rest waiting for them. Mira looked toward Joseph nervously and said: "Why all this delay?" Joseph apologized to her and he and Ethan headed toward one of the available chairs. Ethan sat in front of Jesse, while Joseph sat in front of Nicholas. Jesse looked at the flower in Ethan's hand and said to him: "Oh! It's those flowers outside. Did you like them too?" He began patting Ethan's head with a light laugh. Mira asked everyone to pay attention. Everyone directed their gazes toward her, waiting for the reason they were summoned. She said: "Well, I explained to you the reason for summoning you previously, but I'll repeat it because of these two's delay. I brought you to carry out your first mission in this village, and since it's your first mission, it will be a simple task. Of course, if you have any questions, feel free to ask them."
Nicholas spoke saying: "Is there any financial return or benefit from this mission?"
Mira answered him: "Of course, for each mission you carry out, each one of you will receive 30 Anro. Are there any other questions?"
Jesse raised his hand saying: "What do we need to do in this mission?"
Mira replied: "Well, the mission is simple." She turned toward a large map on one of the walls and placed her finger on one of the locations on the map: "You will head toward Sokata Forest. One of the village citizens said he found some useful medicinal herbs there, and your mission is simply to bring those herbs."
Jesse replied: "But we don't know exactly where this place is located, as we're not from this area as I can see." Mira pointed her finger toward Joseph saying: "I know, and that's why Joseph Anderson will go with you on this mission. He has comprehensive knowledge of the place, so there's no need to worry about getting lost." Jesse took a deep breath and looked toward her saying: "Well, when will we go?"
Mira replied: "You'll go right now, and additionally, Jesse..." Jesse looked toward her with surprise: "What do you want?" Mira replied: "There's no problem if you take them in your car, right?"
Shock appeared on Jesse's features and he quickly turned toward her: "What? My car is here? Where did you put it?!" Mira replied: "Calm down, man, you'll find it at the exit gate."
Jesse and the rest left the hut and Joseph asked them to follow him. They continued walking until they reached a huge gate with a man in brown clothing and a hat of the same color in front of it. Joseph went to him, took out a card with some strange symbols, and told him he was on a mission. The guard looked at the card and pulled a lever in front of him, causing the gate to begin opening slowly until it opened completely, then closed after Joseph and the rest exited to see a barren desert with some dead trees outside the wall. Nicholas looked right and left and said sarcastically: "I lived in places like this most of my life, but I'm not nostalgic for them." Jesse looked to the right to see that his car was in front of one of the walls.
He rushed toward the car and started it. After hearing the sound of the car starting, relief began returning to his heart as he spoke in his mind: "Thank God it still works." The rest headed toward the car. Joseph got in the front seat while the others got in the back, and before taking off, Joseph said to them: "No need to fear getting lost as long as I'm with you." Joseph took out a map from a small bag he had and told Jesse to head right. Jesse began moving the car under Joseph's directions and set off toward a new journey.
(The End)