Chapter 5: The Starboy Is Sneaking On An Adventure. Surely, Nothing Will Go Wrong

“You… can’t go?”

Enel slowly turned back, his eyes showing his confusion as they reflected Lamb’s shrinking frame. He approached her, then stopped as he noticed her looking at the almost empty pile of firewood.

Her eyes also trailed toward the empty water buckets.

“I understand.” Enel sighed, placing his hand on her shoulder. “Perhaps some other time, then?”

Lamb bit her lip, tightening her grip on the heavy sword that was given to her. She wanted to say so many things, but only a nod escaped her.

She raised the sword, returning it to Enel. Enel, however, quickly pushed her hand away.

“I gave it to you. It is yours to keep… old friend.” Enel’s voice… trembled at the end—no. Not just trembled, but it sounded so harsh and dry, like an old man. “Thirty years we have fought together. ‘Tis time, ah. The morrow will come soon.”

Lamb stared at him in confusion for a moment, although it was still incredibly dark, the moon was no longer to be seen anywhere—that meant the new day had just started… and yet the morrow will come soon? Her confusion didn’t last, however, as her back slowly hunched, and she used the sword as a cane.

“Ah… go,” she said, her voice imitating an old man. “Go wayward, and never stop. My journey is done, but yours is just beginning, old friend.”

The two stared into each other’s eyes for an entire five seconds, then snorted at the same time. They both covered their mouths, afraid to wake Lamb’s mother. It took another five seconds for the two to calm down.

“Enel…” Lamb whispered, wiping her nose from the morning dew. “...Bring my brother home, too.”

“I will bring everyone back.” Enel bowed his head, thumping his chest and standing up straight. “The Sovereign is on my side.”

Lamb also stood up straight and thumped her chest, nodding to her best friend. She then carefully rested her new sword on the fence and removed her bandana.

“Please, Enel…” she approached him, then tied the bandana around his arm. “...Please, come back in one piece.”

“Hmn.” Enel gently grabbed her hand, the two of them nodding to each other before she lightly pushed him.

Lamb once again offered Enel a salute. “Stand tall, my lord. This loyal… this loyal vassal of yours shall await… I will wait for you. But next time…”

Lamb once again bit her lip, her words trembling as her eyes started to water.

“Next time…” she struggled to breathe and control her voice.

“I… I will be the one on your side,” she mumbled, her tears now falling without pause. “Not the gods. I… I make an oath to you… not to them.”

Enel stared at her for a moment, the edges of his lips curling down as he looked up to prevent his own tears from falling. He swiftly turned on his heel, raising his fist as he walked away; his long golden hair flowing like a cape behind him.

***

Several minutes later, Enel was now hiding behind a tree. He sniffled, squinting as he stared at the bald man guarding the gate.

“It’s… Petyr,” he whispered, shaking his head as he moved further back into the shadow. “Why him of all people? This bald-headed gossipmonger will tell father I left.”

The person, Petyr, wasn’t wearing a soldier’s armor, but was dressed like any other villager there… because he was. Widow’s Wall didn’t have any knights of their own, nor even proper guards.

They did, however, have a ton of volunteers willing to man all sides of the wall.

Enel glanced back at the gate and saw Petyr covering a cart filled with weird-looking trunks and branches. Petyr patted the cover, then signalled to the driver to move ahead.

“Axe…” Enel’s eyes turned wide upon seeing the old driver lightly snap the reins, his old horses lazily passing through the gate with his cart.

Enel’s cart.

“No, no… It’s getting away.” Enel started looking around, wondering if he should just make a run for it. But seeing Petyr standing there menacingly with his bald head, the idea quickly left him. He once again scanned the surrounding area, then his head very slowly lifted up, and then up to the top of the wall.

“Hrmn…” He squinted, then, with a breath, slowly kneeled. He held his sword tightly… and then leapt.

“Krngh?!” He gritted his teeth, as this was the very first time he’d consciously tried to jump using his strength. The wall of Widow’s Wall was at least the height of a dozen houses, and yet, in just one single leap, he’d managed to… slam himself into the wall.

“Gods!” He gritted his teeth even further, punching his hand through the wall to prevent himself from falling. He looked up at first, and was only a few feet away from the top of the wall. He looked down, only to see chunks of debris falling down.

He signed in relief for a moment, but his eyes darted toward Petyr’s bald head—right in time as it slowly turned to look up… toward him.

Enel’s eyes widened, and he punched his other hand through the wall before practically making a ladder that wasn’t there as he rushed to climb up.

“What…?” Petyr squinted, seeing the cracks on the wall and the rocks falling. “Ah, whore’s breath. This place is one day away from falling apart.”

Meanwhile, Enel was staring at the dark sky, his heavy breaths almost expanding his armor. The nervous look on his face, however, slowly crept into a smile—he had to cover his mouth to prevent himself from laughing.

He quietly sat up, looking left to right to see if there were any people up there with him—but there was no one.

And so, he quickly stood up. He was about to leap to the other side, but the view of Widow’s Wall made his entire body freeze. From this height, he could see every corner of the city—the good and the bad. Mostly the bad.

Most of the ground was cracked, and most of the houses barely had things they could call a roof. The houses were all close to each other, and what remaining alleyways they had were covered in drapes since the refugees had made it their home.

And then, their manor. It had walls, but no gates—his father used it to replace the city gates when a carriage accidentally rammed through them.

And then, his eyes trailed to how the city earned its name. On the other side of the city, behind the manor, behind the walls, was a forest barely visible due to the thick fog covering it.

A fog, brighter than the moon… and yet it held no brilliance at all.

The walls were too large for the people living within them now.

His father once said heroes used to gather here. There were adventurers, treasure hunters… men who walked into the Veil and returned with glory. Until they returned less and less.

And then, it came to a point when no one returned at all.

Widow’s Wall gained its name, and the adventurers began avoiding it like the plague. It just wasn’t worth it anymore—and without their coin, the city’s collapse began.

Enel stared at the city in its entirety, almost sitting down to appreciate it. But when he remembered he had an oath to fulfill, he slapped his cheeks hard.

Petyr once again looked up, this time running away as he thought the wall was about to collapse, not knowing it was just Enel.

Enel crouched down, moving to the other side of the wall so that Petyr wouldn’t spot him. He looked down, then noticed Axe’s cart getting away.

He was about to jump down, but hesitated.

“I…” This was the first time he was leaving the city alone—he’d never been allowed out by his parents. He once again glanced back, looking at the manor. “Mother, Father… I’m sorry for being a disobedient child.”

And with those words, he let himself fall. His hair flowed with the wind, and he stretched his arms to the side to fully feel it brushing past him. He did not even bother to land properly, smacking face-first on the damp ground.

And like a spider, he kicked away—shooting straight toward the back of the cart that was already quite a distance away.

“Huh?!” Axe, who felt the cart shake, looked back. He examined his goods, but aside from the cover being lightly blown by the wind, they seemed completely intact. Axe was about to look away when he heard something whisper in his ear, almost like a laugh.

“Who’s there?! It better not be you, Lamb. I swear to the gods!” Axe raised his voice, waited for something to happen, but when the wind once again rustled the cover, the old man just sighed and shook his head.

“Must have been the wind, then.”

No. No, it was not. Unknown to him, Enel was actually beneath his cart, clamped onto the planks while trying to prevent himself from giggling like a little child.

And so starts the adventure of the boy who would completely reshape the world.

“Pft.”

“Huh?!”

Well, perhaps, not just yet. And while Enel was still trying his best not to laugh, something else was happening on the opposite side of the city.

The Veil, the fog that had remained dormant since the time of his father’s grandfather… had begun to crawl once more.

***

“Eugkh?!” Enel was jolted awake. His eyes snapped open, and instead of the drapes and the old ceiling he was familiar with, the only thing he could see was… wood. He looked around and slowly remembered that he had left home.

Surprisingly, even though he fell asleep, he managed to stay latched onto the bottom of the cart even asleep for some reason. Like a lizard, almost. He looked to his left and was surprised to see all the green on the side of the road.

How… long had he been asleep for the sun to already be up?

Enel began crawling forward, carefully leaning his head out to look at Axe. And although the old man looked tired, and his head was bobbing along with the cart, his hands were seemingly bound with the reins, not even a single finger moving away from them.

Enel shrugged at this, then crawled back to his new lair. He started laughing again, thinking of all the adventures he was about to have—this excitement, however, only lasted thirty seconds before he got bored.

Unfortunately for him, he couldn’t fall asleep again as he’d just woken up. He had to stay down there, doing nothing at all. And so, he just started plucking out some of leaves that were sticking out from the gaps of the cart.

The leaves were black, and when he snapped them, they lightly oozed out some sort of black, cloudy paste.

“Uckh…” Enel’s head shook, sticking out his tongue before wiping the goo on the cart. But when he saw the shape of his hand on the cart, a smile started to creep on his face. He looked at the ink on his finger, then started writing his name under the cart, as well as all sorts of… art.

His path as an artist didn’t last long, however, as he heard Axe scream, the hoofs of the horses slamming on the ground as the cart stopped.

“State your intent! I am with orders to deliver this to Riverdown by Baron Robert Blackwood of Widow’s Wall!” Axe roared out. “To stop me is a crime punishable by—”

“Y-you think we care about that?!”

Enel blinked, quickly looking to the side as he heard an unfamiliar voice. He saw several pairs of feet approaching the cart, dirty. Their worn-out boots spoiled with dirt and a hint of red.

“Give us everything you have!”