Chapter 1
Strange
ANOTHER Sunday for all the citizens of Colos. Since it was Sunday, many of the people were carrying goods to sell in the plaza. Zaffire's father was among those people.
Because they lived their whole life in the mountain, Arcane—Zaffire's father, always made piggy banks, charcoal, and other wooden household items whenever he has a time to sell them at the plain to supplement their daily needs.
Since it was natural for the young Zaffire to not wake up early, her father would always go first to the plaza to sell their goods.
Her presence wasn’t something that was needed anyway so she could just follow after she would wake up to help somehow.
Today, she left their home in a hurry to catch up with her father to give him the food she has prepared so that he would not have to touch his earnings anymore.
Wearing her dark red cloak, holding the container filled with the delicious food she made, she glanced at herself in front of the mirror and she was ready to go!
Her original plan was to walk some steps and teleport afterwards to the plaza. But something happened. She wasn't brought in where her father sold his items but a little farther to it.
She was already at the plaza so it was a bit okay. It was only a few minutes walk before she reach their place anyway.
However, she noticed something unpleasant while she was walking. Three tall young men were extorting money from the poor sellers. Currently, they were targeting an old woman.
She wondered, did they target her father already?
"Old hag, give us all your earnings!" someone shouted. Zaffire thought that he might be the thugs’ leader.
Although traces of resistance was shown on the old woman’s face, she was still frightened by the people who suddenly asked for her money because they were notorious around the city and was even more famous for knowing on how to wield magic to hurt people they didn’t favor. Because of that, she was forced to hand over a black plain pouch that Zaffire was sure was holding the old woman’s earnings for the whole day she was working.
Before the guy could even touch the pouch, Zaffire already gave him strong kick at his back—making him dive to the ground and lose his consciousness because of the strong impact.
His disciples didn't expect her sudden attack so they were stunned for a few minutes, but when they regained themselves, they attacked Zaffire using their magic.
Zaffire smirked at the two guys who tried using their sand and metal magic on her.
They were already smirking perilously at her as if they already won. But when their released magic attack were just inches closer and about to hit Zaffire’s face, it quickly disappeared like a bubble, as if something they couldn't see swallowed them whole.
To their horror, they quickly tried to run away but Zaffire was quick enough to catch them both using her two magical whips.
The whips immediately wrapped around their bodies—making them freeze and unable to move like they suddenly turned into sculptures.
"They're already having their lives hard, you're making it even harder. They are living with dignity and peace and you’re bothering them. You are already old enough to build your own families, why don't you just work instead of extorting from the efforts of other people?" Zaffire said while shaking her head in disbelief.
The two disciples of the sleeping thug leader who attacked Zaffire were both frightened and almost peed in their pants when Zaffire pulled them closer.
"Where are all the things that you stole?" Zaffire asked calmly.
The two of them anxiously pointed their unconscious boss on the ground.
Zaffire took all the money they stole from the leader's pocket—whose face was still kissing the ground—as she forced the two lackeys to identify all the people they robbed earlier and tell them to her. Afterwards, Zaffire gave back all the extorted income of the vendors like a total hero from a fairytale book.
The vendors on the other hand wept in joy after all of their stolen earnings were completely returned to them.
Zaffire took a few steps until she was in front of the sleeping thief. Then, she woke him up by giving him a strong slap on the face.
When he moved his head to see who dared to disturb his peaceful sleep, he saw her. With a dizzy and groggy eyes, Sivan adjusted his eyesight—only to see a beautiful goddess in front of him.
On the other hand, Zaffire was a little bit startled.
Why did such a perfect-looking guy do such a horrible thing?
His face could be compared to a an angel. He was so beautiful and mesmerizing to look at like a perfect portrait.
"You and your little disciples, don't steal anymore, huh? If I found out that you're back on track again, I'll beat you to until your hands and magic don’t work anymore. Do we understand each other?" Zaffire said using her softest tone.
Sivan's two companions immediately nodded as the young man just smiled as if he was in a trance—which was not entirely wrong as he thought he was just dreaming.
Loud praises rained on Zaffire because of what she did. She just smiled awkwardly even though she was wearing a cloak and most people couldn't see her.
She was about to leave when the last victim called her.
She was startled when the old woman suddenly took her right palm as she rubbed it gently with her old, calloused hands.
"Why?" Zaffire asked, but the old woman just remained silent and then continued to caress her palm.
"Always be careful. You have a big part in the future. And your destiny… It has long been attached to a creature you could just consider human," the old woman said before she quickly disappeared from her eyes. She was like... Something that was not true.
