I was not an idiot! I was not going to procrastinate and wait for a more appropriate time— something which would surely never come. That was why we had to do this, and do this now.
Slowly, I peeled my blanket off of myself, and pushed myself out of my bed. I groggily walked out of my room to get ready, washing myself and wiping myself down with a piece of cloth. Then I got dressed for the day, wearing my one-piece smock that went down to my knees, held together by a girdle around my waist. With that, I was ready to go.
As usual, mom was already gone by the time I was awake, so I had to pack my things on my own. We decided against telling anyone of our plans, since it would surely lead us to getting caught down the line; so we were just going to disappear tonight. And to do that, we had to pack light.
I grabbed a bag of coins, and headed to Villamcreek.
Villamcreek was a small and obscure village on the outskirts of the Rem Republic, with only forest surrounding us for miles on end. The Incen Mountain Range formed a natural barrier to most of the neighboring countries, barring the Free Lands, which was accessible through a pass in the northeast. But our country did not have the greatest relationship with them, which made travelers or merchants coming to and from them even more sparse.
Farmers labored to provide the majority of food for the village, while others— like Adrian’s father— went hunting for animals to bring back meat to sell here, while skinning them for other parts to sell in the neighboring towns. There were also some craftsmen and even basic tinkerers who sold basic products here, hoping to maybe one day get enough money to move to a city. This all meant that there was not a lack of shops in the village— there were just very little of them, and they tended to be pricey.
I arrived at the village after a short walk, heading straight to one of the few said shops. There, I bought things I felt necessary for travelling that we did not already have; all in all, it cost about 47 bronze, which was about 2 and a half silver.
Currency in this world was almost completely ubiquitous: the smallest denomination of money was bronze, followed by silver, then gold, and finally platinum. 20 bronze equaled to 1 silver, 12 silver equaled to 1 gold, and 100 gold equaled to 1 platinum, though platinum was supposedly quite rare. Bronze coins typically got you your everyday items such as food and drinks, whilst gold was what you use for larger transactions like buying a house.
Although the Rem Republic was considered to be one of the richer countries in this world, living in a small village like Villamcreek meant 2 and a half silver was worth quite a lot. Most people here would barely make 2 gold a year! What I had spent, was pretty much a quarter of my mom’s savings, and was sure to arouse some suspicion, but it didn’t matter; by the time anyone caught on to what we were doing, we would have been gone.
It didn’t take long before I was back home and was packing; I didn’t have much I needed to bring, just a few clothes, some books, and other basic necessities. I did not really have any items with sentimental value in this world, which somehow turned out to be a good thing.
By the time I was finished, it was not even noon. With nothing much else to do, I decided to practice my control over mana crystals. I went to the kitchen, picked up the lighter, and activated it just enough that a spark would come out. I did that a few more times, before making an actual fire; I made small flames and big flames, made it continuous and instantaneous, and I repeated it all several times.
I was still in the middle of practicing when I heard a knock coming from the front. Quickly pocketing the lighter, I went to the door and opened it. Adrian was nervously standing there in his leather tunic, with his dad’s pistol on his side.
"Hey Melas."
"Hey," I greeted him curtly.
"Uh, what are you doing?"
He managed to make eye contact with me as we spoke, but quickly broke it off once again, after he got the question out. Speaking of which, what kind of a question is that?!
You did not just go up to someone’s house and knock on their door to ask them about what they were doing. Obviously I’m talking to you!
I liked Adrian, I really did. He was the only person in Villamcreek that I would consider my friend, but his crush on me made it difficult to talk to him sometimes. I mean, I know that I am difficult to talk to for most, but at least I’m not awkward about it!
My unintentional silence from thinking too much seemed to key Adrian in, and he quickly followed up.
"You usually come to the village to pick me up before you go gathering— I just thought that I’d save you the trouble and wait here instead, but uh, I forgot that you don’t go gathering every day. So, I was wondering if you’d be going today?"
Ah yes, I completely forgot about that. There was no point in going to the forest today, but I did want to give him some sort of subtle goodbye and get some form of
