Chapter 5: Chapter 0.05 | Going Around Linel Part 1

"Bye bye!"

Gren left the restaurant. Without saying bye.

There is nothing different about him since earlier today, except that in his pockets, there is a scroll. It's what the woman gave him.
Gren was really bothered by the fact that she didn't tell him her name. It wasn't a pleasant feeling.

The air wasn't really cold, but the wind was. His boots would make noises which echo throughout the street he's going through.
It was dark. The street wasn't small, yet there isn't anybody. It could be that he entered a bad street. Nidon isn't really known for notorious gangs. Actually, just Perera is known for such things. Not only in their disorganized areas to the north, but also in the most stable areas of the country.

Once again, Gren pulled out the map. His memory wasn't the greatest, so he had to look at the map again.
With his left hand, he lit up one of his fingers to use as a torch. With his right hand, he grabbed the map.
While being distracted with the map, somebody threw a bottle at him. Thankfully, it landed right behind him.
"Ah? What?" He turned around.
"Y'know you can't use your powers in the cities fire boy?" The stranger sounded sarcastic. It could be because he's drunk, which might be the case.
"What's wrong with using my finger as a source of light?" Although Gren was right, that guy also is. You could be punished badly if you damaged practically anything, especially with elements.

There was an awkward moment of silence.
"Talking back little guy? Seems like I'll have to show you who you're messing with!" 
Gren really was confused. What did I do wrong?-
That pose looks like one of a power wielder. To be specific, earth. The consequences for using the earth element in a town are one of the harshest.

"Eh!?" Gren reacted quickly, he jumped. A spike of earth from the ground was sent straight to Gren, so he boosted himself higher with flames, concentrated around his leg.

 Thanks to the boost, it went straight at his leg, so he managed to dodge it.
Gren landed on a rooftop.
"You must know that Kanto's Guild is right over there. Somebody will surely come to arrest you."
"Heh! I'm not an amateur like you. I know what to do in these cases." The stranger didn't seem to be some mere drunkard.
- Do I run? Gren didn't want to fight. He was rather exhausted perhaps. Or maybe knew of the consequences if he were to go serious. 

"Come down here already! If you won't.... I'll come to you!" He created a staircase. The immature man made sure to have no trace of what he did... is what Gren noticed. Usually, when Gren has sudden encounters similar to the one we're witnessing, he panics inside his head. You could tell by his facial expression, which Gren is aware of and nearly every time he does this, he hopes the opposite party didn't notice.
Gren got in a position to throw a fist of fire with his right hand, while also preparing to make a shield with his left arm.
That was a defensive style position which is common throughout flame benders. 
"Come on! This is what you asked for!" He said something weird to intimidate the rock guy while smiling.
"That's more like it!" He jumped right at Gren.
"Eh?!"

What a troublesome guy! Gren immediately jumped off to the ground and started running. He made sure to remember which directions his apartment is at, but did he perhaps forget? Well... He went the opposite way. Maybe he's going to take another path? Or is he trying to lose him?

There really wasn't anybody! Maybe there won't be any witnesses of what he's going to damage if he fights back. It was a thought which didn't stop bothering Gren.
He looked back.
"He's gone..." he muttered to himself. Gren took the chance to lose him. However, Gren didn't only lose that man. He lost himself also.

After a minute of running, Gren realised something.
-Wait, where am I now?! Haha... how funny. He stopped moving, looking around him, there doesn't seem to be anything of significance to be showed on the mini map.
Nobody seems to be around to help him either...
The poor boy was never used to solitude.

"Lost again?" A familiar voice echoed throughout the wide street.
Gren looked behind him. A few meters away stands Kol, his teammate.
"Kol!" He called out to him as he smiled.
"I was waiting for you. I figured that you might get to somewhere astray after a while of waiting, so I went outside looking for you."
Kol smiled back.
"Come on. Let's go." Gren ran up to him as Kol was walking towards what he thinks is the right path.
They started chatting about what happened.

...
"Mister, welcome back! Your friend was very worried about you, he's currently outside..."  The bartender stopped talking as he saw Kol come in too after Gren.
"Oh, so you were both here. It's very late, so please take a rest."
Gren nodded.
"How about you go rest?" Kol made a joke, he was right though. The guy only has an hour break, and he works for practically the rest of the day.

Everybody is now on their beds. Thankfully, they all fell asleep without any problems.
They don't share rooms too.
Gren had an unpleasant dream. It had something to do with what happened earlier.

Morning.
The sun hasn't showed up yet. It was pretty dark.
Gren is used to waking up early, so he didn't have any problem dressing up. Well, it was actually just a mantle which he needed to wear. And his tall boots.

The place was open, the bartender is already there. This early in the morning, people usually don't do much when they're alone.
However, the bartender seems to be a cook, so he was cooking up some bread, likely for breakfast. Where are the other cooks?
"Good morning! You're up very early, the usual breakfast isn't ready yet." Gren took his own moment to reply.
"Yeah, no problem. I'm not very hungry yet. I'd like a drink."

While the two chatted, the newspaper was delivered.
"Thank you very much. Here's the big copper coin."
"Have a good day!"
"Hey, mind if I read with you?" Immediately after that, Gren thought::
-Wait, what if I sound like I'm trying to... Agh! No!

...

"Of course. Let's see now..." The bartender opens it up... Eh? On the frontpage there is...

'TRAGEDY: THE KETOD OF GELOH IS DEAD!'

No way! She died..?
She died in her sleep. At least that's what the newspapers claim.

Well... I guess that there's a bright side to it. I can now explain what will happen! Or what could happen.

After a ketod(leader) dies, in a completely random period of time, note that there has never been a nation without a ketod for longer than 2 years though. By that, I mean that a ketod will surely appear in under 2 years.
It'll be more likely for the new one to appear within a month or two though.
Did that sound weird? Well, I'm not repeating it!

You are reading story Consequences And Stories Of The New World at novel35.com

Of course, the nation which holds the record for the longest time without a ketod being born, is held by ChanPaKan. 
It's also considered by historians that the resistance managed to get proper ground on ChanPaKans colony mostly because there wasn't a ketod to support them.
The whole island fell in just about two weeks.

"I guess that the sickness got to her." 
Gren didn't comment. He was thinking.
"Hey, don't you control the flames? What if you end up blessed with these abilities?" The man tried to cheer Gren up.
"Y-Yeah, that would be cool. I'm surprised that she died so young... I expected her to be alive for at least ten years more."
Gren had a reason to think of that.

Ketods have have a lifespan of around 65 years. It's considerably less than a healthy person, who would outlive a ketod with around 10 years, if they haven't went through a fatal disease that is.
Fatal diseases don't curse ketods with any effect, unlike an average person.

So, what could that disease be? Only God knows if we'll find out.
"It's even stranger considering that in 4 years, the ketod in Shikinino will reach 80 years of age." He is right. There haven't been many leaders who have reached such an age. The oldest recorder died at 83 in Perera.

What now? Geloh and Hirom have their relationship with Folort worsened to a point where it wouldn't be surprising that a conflict will arise. It was a great chance for Folort, which seems to have prepared for something like this in a long time. By defeating Geloh quickly together with Menish, they'd have a chance to push Hirom, together with Perera which would likely not only push together with Folort in the north, but also push in the south to capture Esaseen, an important port city, then we have Shikinino which'd probably assist Pereras navy against Hirom.

All is good for Menish, Folort and Perera, but that could create a conflict with ChanPaKan. Last time ChanPaKan had a war, the resistance popped up and stole their colony. The great bridge between the colony and Ezgelei was destroyed after that, which was used to transport the large amounts of goods from the colony, which is now where The Resistance resides, into Ezgelei, and then from Ezgelei into the trading partners of ChanPaKan.

What's worse though, is that even though Yoshaqo, who became 68 years old this year, is still as strong as when he was under Birsha, even though he's very elder compared to back then.
Birsha is the one who created the resistance about 70 years ago. Or, let's say that it was 69 years ago. Yoshaqo was born one year after that.
So, Yoshaqo had loving parents and a decent life, natural for the people of ChanPaKans colony...
Ah, nevermind. I rambled too much. Yoshaqo and Birsha can be saved for another time.

Now, where were we? Ok, so!
"I'll go out for a walk. Here's the money. I'll come back later."
"Stay safe!"

After opening the wooden door, the air felt much more fresh. It was something Gren always enjoyed.
He was immediately slapped with "Good morning!" though. Many times. He wasn't really used to saying good morning or good evening... he'd only say "Hi." or "Hey." as a greeting.

Gren walked for the sake of passing time.
Even though he isn't really enlightened on LeiLei, he still felt down. Most likely because he feels connected with her because of the power which has been gifted to him. He wanted to go to her graveyard. It's an urge which has been constantly nagging him ever since he read the text on the newspaper.

He looked around. If somebody were to imagine that it's a kid with the same body language and facial expression, that somebody would think that he's lost.
Actually, he didn't look well. Gren suddenly hurried back to his room.
Two minutes later, he's in.
"Oh, you're back!"
"Yeah, I have some things to do."
As he enters the room, he looks at the shelf of books.

"The Unfortunate Tale Of Hirom"
"The Ways Of The East"
"Ezgelei"
"Tragedy Of The Greatest Man"

He looked through. There were some interesting titles, but he was looking for one specific.
"Ketod And About Them" Good thing that this place has provided some good quality books.

He looked through the page which lists all the content of the book.
There sure are some interesting things! Who knew that a ketod had what seems like shortened life span? No one, right? Such information is top secret, only known by the people who spend all their life to discover this secret!

Gren practically covered his whole face with the book. He looks very invested.
"There!" He let out quite the voice. He might be warned about the noises he made.
"Ah, time to rest now."
...
He didn't even take off his boots. Agh, why!? Hopefully he doesn't make much mess.

Gren really doesn't feel well though. I guess that we could let that slide because of that, but still...

Knock Knock!
"Who's there?"
"Kol."
"Come in."
The door opened.

"Before anything, why didn't you take your boots off before going to bed?"
"Ah, no worries, I didn't sleep like this. Anyway, what's up?"
"Breakfast."
"Oh, it's ready? Let's go then!"

Hmmm, I think that it's around 6 in the morning.
A nice breakfast of ChanPaKan!
Bread made just now, salad with tomatoes and cucumber together, shirred eggs...
"Excuse me, can we also have rum?"
"Yes, of course!"
Rum?
Anyway, seems like Gren wants to talk about something.

"I assume you guys haven't read the newspapers... The ketod of Geloh is dead."
"Oh?"
"Mm!"
"She did? That's surprising."

Everybody, but Kol was caught off guard.
"You could expect 30 extra years of her reign, yet she's now dead?"
Ayden resisted the urge to shout.
"Yeah, right? She died in her sleep. Is what the newspaper said."

Mhm, right! The newspaper said something else though!
And that something else is:
We'll see what happens, next chapter!