Heed mine call, O' brave warrior.
With a sudden heartbeat, Zarus jolted awake, rising from a puddle of tainted water and waste, gasping for air as his hand clutched his chest.
Piles of garbage and dead trees surrounded him as cold rain poured from the sky, completely drenching his hair and what he could only describe as ragged, tattered clothes.
Even with the stench curling his nose into a grimace, Zarus kept searching for something that isn't there. His surroundings don't matter—whatever he's after is far more important.
Frail as he is, he still claws through the nearest piles, even the mud.
But it proved futile for not even a glimpse of that thing was found as the remaining light diminished from his eyes. Zarus stood up in utter despair and unexplainable sorrow that he couldn't help but yell on the top of his lungs.
With a hollow cry that emptied the last of his strength, he collapsed into the mud—his anguish swallowed by the rain and silence.
...
But I cannot let thee fall down.
With those ominous words still echoing in his mind, Zarus snapped awake once more—this time in a completely different setting from before.
He was now laying on a rough mattress with a pillow sewed with patches of different cloth.
Sunlight streamed across his face, and he raised an arm to block it as his eyes drifted around the unfamiliar space.
Cracked stone walls and aged wooden planks loomed above him, offering shade from what he could only assume was harsh sunlight. But more importantly—where was he now?
The last thing he remembered was being surrounded by refuse, desperately searching for something—though even that memory was slipping...
The urge to search for that certain something felt distant now, almost like a fleeting afterthought, as his gaze settled on his calloused palms. Only now did he notice the gray bandages wrapped tightly around his torso.
As he touched it, Zarus felt extreme discomfort — not pain, but a creeping unease that stopped him from even attempting to peer beyond it.
"A-ah!?"
A woman's voice startled Zarus, snapping his stern gaze toward her.
Crash!
She dropped the plate and the food with it, the sudden clatter echoing through the room.
Zarus's silver eyes quickly took her in — a young woman, likely in her early twenties, with vivid red hair that spilled messily down her shoulders and striking gold eyes wide with alarm.
She wore simple, worn commoner's clothes, an apron tied hastily over a plain dress, now stained by the fallen meal.
They locked eyes, both frozen for a moment, then glanced down at the shattered plate.
"Sorry! Sorry! Sorry!" she stammered, dropping to her knees as she scrambled to gather the shards.
Zarus was bewildered by the situation but nearly forgot a common courtesy to help a lady, instinctively at least.
"... Uh... careful."
Zarus tried to stand up from the mattress he was laying on.
He didn't question where he was—only that, somehow, this person had saved him.
But the moment Zarus pushed himself up from the mattress and tried to stand, a wave of unease washed over him. It wasn't pain, exactly, but a strange discomfort that stopped him from even attempting to walk.
It likely had something to do with the mysterious damage beneath the bandages on his torso—though he wasn't eager to find out exactly what.
"H-hey, don't force yourself!"
The red-haired woman sprang into action, quickly moving to help Zarus back onto the bed. Her concern for a stranger caught him off guard.
"That thing on your body... I can't even tell if it's a wound, but it pulses whenever you move!" she said, her voice trembling with shock.
Zarus was puzzled. He had no memory of any injury like that—or of much else, for that matter.
Now that he thought about it… he couldn't remember anything at all.
"There, there, nice and easy," she murmured softly.
With her help, Zarus settled back onto the mattress, staring up at the ceiling with a mixture of wonder and curiosity.
"I... I shouldn't have bothered you, but I'm indebted to you. Miss…?"
He realized with embarrassment that he hadn't even asked her name.
"Roxanne. But everyone calls me Rox!" she replied with a small smile.
"Then please do know that I'm forever grateful for your attendance to me, Miss Rox." Zarus replied.
His expression was a mix of gratitude and worry for something he couldn't quite tell but simply left it at that.
He couldn't help but worry for Rox—taking in a stranger like him couldn't have been easy.
"... Um. I appreciate the gratitude... but you haven't quite told me your name yet, Mister...?" She inquired, kneeling beside the mattress staring at him with intense curiosity.
He couldn't help but be more tense especially when she's staring close at him like that but no matter.
"... Zarus. The name's Zarus." He replied closing his eyes in resignation.
"Zarus, eh? That's a strange name." Rox immediately replied tilting her head, seemingly never hearing of such odd name.
"Well, where did you exactly came from, Mister Zarus?" She added in an ever curious tone, but also a way to interrogate him should he prove himself to be a troublesome guest.
But Zarus himself was unsure of where he came from, although he tried pondering about it.
Trying to access even the little information he could...
Unfortunately though, his memory is simply shrouded in darkness.
"... Forgive me, Miss Rox. I can't seem to recall anything aside from the fact that I was seeking something... in that dumpster." Zarus replied in an apologetic tone.
Rox crossed her arms before sighing, "Here I thought you were one of those Edicts especially with the way you talk." She grumbled scratching the back of her head.
"But I couldn't say that's a bad thing, since I wouldn't want a jerk in my home either although I wouldn't mind having someone to pummel I guess." She added glaring at side, remembering something horrible.
"Pretentious bastards trying to look good." She ranted a little before looking back at Zarus, wondering if she gauged out a reaction from him.
But Zarus got even more confused, like deer in headlights at the mention of Edicts.
"... Pardon me, Miss Rox, but what's exactly an Edict?" He asked in such a genuine tone that Rox couldn't mistake it for him just playing dumb.
"Nice joke, Mister." She groaned raising a eyebrow but instead of catching Zarus in the act, his confusion remains unchanged.
"H-hey? Didja' bump your head or something? or are you just really living under a rock?" She added getting more worried, seemingly wondering if he didn't just received that weird pulsing injury but also had amnesia in the process.
"... I do not recall so?" Zarus replied in the same genuine tone making it hard for Rox.
Rox frowned and raised a finger—then hesitated, realizing just how confusing this all was.
"... Urgh, damnit. I don't think I can explain it to you because it's just common sense y'know... but oh well." Rox simply stood up and turned away from Zarus.
"I'll take your word with a grain of salt but you're still my guest, it's proper manners to take care of a guest especially if you invited them in." Rox sighed before waving her hands, going out of the room along with the pieces of a broken plate for she has to replace his food from earlier.
Zarus's curiosity about these Edicts grew a bit more wondering what Rox was pertaining to, a type of person or a group perhaps?
Zarus glanced down at his calloused palms—worn from searching for something he couldn't even name, perhaps an item? a piece of his a identity, perhaps? but something he couldn't name.
With a weary sigh, he let his body go limp and sank back into the mattress.
"Zarus," he said, eyes closing as if searching for more—but there was nothing else.
Although those thoughts ceased as Rox returned with a new plate and what seems to be soup.
"You have to eat well to recover your strength, dunno if it'll fix whatever that thing on your body though..." She exclaimed trying not to reimagine the appearance of that pulsing thing.
Zarus appreciated her kindness, once again wondering why she was being so generous to a complete stranger—but that wasn't something he felt right questioning.
"...Thank you," he said softly, then sat up—awkwardly and with some discomfort, but he managed.
He took the bowl of hot soup from Rox's hands and drank it earnestly, finally realizing just how much his body craved nourishment as he suddenly felt some of his strength recovering.
"Whoa, whoa, whoa. Chill down big guy, I still have more in the pot." Rox seemed surprised that he's that eager to eat something like soup which is commonly known as a commoner's food.
And with a final gulp, just like that the soup was finished as Zarus wiped his mouth with the back of his hand.
Rox was surprised at how fast he drank that soup, "I guess you're just starving, eh?" She remarked with a smirk, a bead of sweat falling down from her forehead.
Zarus set the bowl down beside him, only to feel a sudden pulse beneath the bandages on his torso. Unlike before, it wasn't painful—just... present.
He considered telling Rox, but chose against it. There was no need to burden her with more concern.
With a quiet breath, he made another attempt to stand.
Suprising enough, he managed to do so, surprising Rox at that insane recovery speed just from her soup.
"... I— uh..." She couldn't even form a word let alone a sentence for whe couldn't comprehend what happened to this man.
With all that confusion building up in her head, Rox reached a conclusion.
"My soup has a healing factor!" Rox declared, half-joking, half-convinced. Anything was easier to believe than what she just saw.
Zarus watched in bewilderment as Rox began pacing excitedly, her movements almost like a child who just got their first candy.
He couldn't blame her enthusiasm—he himself struggled to comprehend how a simple bowl of soup could restore so much of his strength.
"My life is about to turn for the better when I introduce this creation of mine to the world!" Rox celebrated while Zarus moved past her, still clutching onto his bandaged torso.
Looking around Rox's humble abode, Zarus began to understand her excitement.
She lived in a worn-down place—a house cobbled together from scraps and makeshift materials, with visible holes in the walls. He couldn't help but wonder why she endured such conditions.
Curious, he poked around the small space until he came across a window.
Peering outside, he saw an even harsher reality—conditions far worse than inside.
For a moment, he questioned if anyone could truly live here. Yet Rox was living proof that someone did.
At this moment, Rox stopped celebrating which Zarus immediately noticed at the sudden shift in the mood.
Rox tensed up suddenly as she immediately went to Zarus, beads of sweat dripping from her forehead.
"... U-uhm... Mister. Could you wait for a moment there?" She stammered looking from side to side in a frantically while tugging Zarus away from the window.
Zarus became wary of this sudden shift in her demeanor and didn't wish to make matters worse for her, so he instead listened to her pleas without much resistance.
Dragging away Zaru,s towards the room he was in before opening a door whic,h he could only assume was her closet.
"I-I can't let them know that there's another one..." Rox gulped, becoming more tense as she seemingly hadn't taken into account a dire consequence.
"Mister Zarus... please don't get out of here no matter what you hear." She warned, not intending to repeat herself again which Zarus understood quite easily.
However, from the looks of it, this seems like something he couldn't just stand aside and watch. Soon, Rox closed the metal closet door and he heard a click before she left the room.
Knock, knock.