On a dark, dreary night at the eastern edge of the outermost walls of Rosa. The great city was quiet, yet still carried its nightly bustle.
Atop the wall were large ramparts and various watch towers of differing sizes that overlooked the vast hilly plains that surrounded the city.
Large lights shone across the plains from each watchtower, scouring the surroundings for any potential threats. If there had been any, various sirens would have rang out and a plethora of lethal ranged weapons would have been deployed.
One of the thousands of knights atop the wall was making his way across the rampart he was assigned to for the night. He wore simple armour with red linings and a masterfully designed emblem of a red lion engraved onto his protective wear.
Above his armour, the knight was cloaked in puffed clothes to protect him from the elements - even though the cold was not bothering him that much.
Making his usual rounds across the rampart, the knight glanced into the city, looking beyond the walls and basking in the beautiful cityscape that was made even more magnificent under the night sky.
Rosa - just like any other city - had a rather simple structure. It was split into three rings, each separated by large, towering walls.
The innermost ring was often the area where the kings or queens and the upper echelons of society would reside. The middle ring would be home to those that belonged to the upper middle class and the lower upper class.
Lastly, the outermost ring and the largest of the three would belong to the outliers.
The unnamed knight only spared the city a brief glance before pointing his attention towards the stark opposite of the wondrous city.
His gaze was rather wistful.
"I'm bored… but I guess that's not necessarily a bad thing…" He thought briefly, thinking back a few months when he had to descend those same walls and charge out towards a lurking beast alongside his comrades.
Just a month ago, many of his brothers and sisters in arms were meticulously deployed to annihilate all potential threats within the surrounding region.
Their mission was spearheaded by the Second Vassal of Lionheart, Atticus Loghorn - One of many powerful Awakened that served under the Lionhearts, rulers of Rosa.
Releasing a chilled breath, the knight moved his gaze from the vast plains and down towards the base of the wall. Hundreds of metres down, deep shadows etched themselves at the side of the wall.
Normal men couldn't even see the ground from such a height. But those limitations did not apply to an awakened person.
Those that had awakened their latent ability to harness spite - an otherworldly power - were referred to as awakened and were believed by many to be the natural protectors of mankind.
Down below, pressed against Rosa's guardian wall was a small collection of buildings that looked like a small community.
The community held hundreds of people that were too poor to live within the city or were outcasts and had nowhere else to go.
It was strange because there were plenty of vagrants and homeless people within the city.
It was puzzling to imagine that they were living there by choice and strangely enough the community was steadily growing, accepting more and more outcasts from Rosa.
Even though its living conditions were still primitive compared to living within the walls..
So what was drawing these people to settle outside the city?
At that moment, the knight didn't understand why but he felt remorse and pity for the children that would be forced to grow up in such an environment.
"What a harsh reality…"
***
At the community's edge, sat at the furthest point from the wall was a small shack in terrible condition. It was seemingly isolated from the other homes and buildings within the community, leaving an eerie and heavy atmosphere around it.
Behind the shack's rotten and scarred wooden door was a small area decorated with a wooden table that had two roughly made wooden chairs to each side.
At its top was a single dirty plate and two wooden cups.
Next to the old table were two boys standing next to each other wearing ragged and dirty clothes. Their bodies were visibly thinner than they should have been due to malnutrition.
But hunger was the least of their worries.
The younger and shorter of the two, Xaryus, had short, coarse black hair whilst the older and taller of the two, Zadius, had grey hair that flowed smoother with slight curls.
They both had brown skin and their already thin frames were frozen by an indescribable emotion.
Painfully, their eyes were fixed to the broken roof of the shack. Where an old piece of rope was tied around a sturdy beam of wood in the damaged ceiling.
The rope descended a short distance before it coiled around a woman's neck.
Her once beautiful facial features were long buried behind a cold, dark and lifeless expression. The woman's eyes were like an empty pit, only a handful of pained tears creeping their way out its lightless grasp.
A teal dress draped itself across her body. Even in such a dark moment, the dress looked magnificent in the moonlight..
With each passing moment, her legs swayed slightly, causing the ceiling to creak eerily.
A few moments of silence passed and the brothers could not pull their gaze away from their mother. They had not even understood what they were witnessing.
Life had been unfair to them. In distant memories that they could not recall and in more recent ones as well.
Thoughts of their father collapsing and being carried away by men from the nearby community passed through their minds.
Now, their mother had made the decision to follow behind her husband and leave her children behind.
"Why does her neck look like that, Zadius?"
Xaryus asked in a concerned tone, his hand clutching the edge of Zadius' shirt and knowing tears beginning to swell in his eyes.
A single moment passed before Zadius turned his brothers eyes away from their mother and hugged him tightly.
"She's just resting, Xaryus… Just resting."
Zadius' words of comfort were not spoken with any genuine emotions. It was merely a facade to keep Xaryus calm and an instinctual response as his older brother.
Deep down, a more wrathful feeling was swelling inside Zadius.
It was hatred.
"How could she be so selfish!"
Zadius' thoughts flared violently as he held back a wave of tears.