Rage

Handing the man a fair quantity of money, I made my way out of the store. I could see Luna was waiting seated on a metal railing across the path. The rail overlooked the beach and I watched as her long, silver hair blew back in the wind.

We ended up getting a lot of attention due to her black hair. Lots of people called her a demon, and it didn’t help when added with everything that had happened at the Capital. It seems contempt for those with black hair was rapidly rising. It’s a good thing that in Lores we were able to find people who could change her hair colour.

Of course those people charged a premium to keep quiet about her old hair colour. This was the best for her, and apparently this had been her original hair colour as well so she was happy to have it back. Her happiness had also brought me joy as well. It’s still a little hard to smile, but if it’s for her, I’ll keep trying my best to smile.

Speaking of the aforementioned demon, it seems his insidious creation had caught on to the other other regions. They had all sought after the so-called ‘gun’ which was used on that day. After a while they were able to start creating them, but it seems for the moment they are only available to guards, nobles, and schools.

It seems she didn’t even notice I had left the shop. She seemed to be infatuated with the sun as it set over the horizon of the ocean. While the sight was quite lovely, I was a little sad she hadn’t noticed me when I left.

“Hey Luna!” I called to her while waving to get her attention.

“Oh, you’re out already?” She wondered.

“Well I am standing here.”

“Fair point.”

We shared a small laugh due to that short conversation. I made my way over to the railing where Luna had been waiting for me. Taking a seat next to her, the wind started to blow stronger on me. This breeze could only remind me of the day that had been called a birthday ever so long ago.

“So, how do I look?” I questioned Luna.

“Huh? Well, to be honest…” She started.

I began getting ready to feel slightly dejected from the start. My fashion sense wasn‘t really top notch and each time I would get different clothes, Luna would tend to remind me of this. I tried really hard this time, but still I’m not sure if it was correct.

“It looks great!” She finished.

“I’m sorry, I’m really not good at thi……..WAIT! What did you say?” I asked.

“I won’t repeat it again…..I said you look great.” This time she mumbled it more, slightly turning red.

“Yes!”

The clothes I had bought were somewhat similar to my old sundress, except this one had been white. It was also more frilly and went up to just before my knees. It was pretty light which made it perfect for the hot weather that was present in the afternoons here. I had also bought a light turquoise overcoat since the nights tended to get pretty chilly.

“Still, I had hoped you would get rid of that old satchel.” She commented.

“Well, I like it.” I tried to wave her off the contents of the satchel.

“Ugh, I wish I shopped at that place as well.”

“You should’ve joined me then.”

“But you never choose the right place.”

“Hahaha.” I laughed, but her comment stung a little.

“Well what do you think of what I’m wearing?” She asked as she stood up to show off a bit more.

Luna’s new outfit had sleeves with slight openings where her arm would meet the side of her body. The sleeves were also coloured teal as if to resemble the ocean. The main portion which covered her torso had been a white button up which followed the slightly open aesthetic the sleeves had at the sides.

Finally, the bottom of the top also doubled as a skirt, once again being teal. It reached down to the mid section of her thigh and ended there. This outfit matched her height well, being only slightly taller than me now.

She used to be so small when I first met her, but I guess she was twelve years old after all. Now she’s eighteen. Although it slightly bothered me that she had grown so tall, there was really nothing I could do about it. I’m sure if I looked around in Lores hard enough I could probably find a way to make myself a bit taller, but whatever.

As I turned to get off the railing, a gust of wind had blown my hair in front of me. The snow white locks reflected the light brightly, slightly blinding me. Of course, only my right eye was blinded as I chose to leave the left behind in the Capital. The glass eye which resembled the colour of the ring I had wasn’t going to tell me anything anyways. As the wind settled down and my hair began to go back into place, I reached for a bit of it. Examining it I saw as only a small amount of the original purple colour had remained.

Most of my hair had turned white. In fact, so much of it was white now that it even started worrying Luna to an extent. This minor stop to examine it once again also didn’t contribute to easing her. Releasing my hair, I was able to spot the concern on Luna’s face.

“Are you ready to go back to the hotel?” I asked, trying to misplace her worry.

“Y-yes.” She responded.

We began walking the path so that we could reach the room we had been staying in for the past three days. It was a little costly, but having taken odd jobs along the way, it seemed we had built up a comfortable amount of money. I could even afford to send Luna to school.

They had even recently started teaching courses on magic which would be good for her to learn. The thought of sending her was always on my mind since it would help her out quite a bit. However, whenever I brought up the topic with her, she would flat out reject it in its entirety. For some reason she didn’t want to leave, but I couldn’t figure out why.

“Hey, do you think we can just stay here this time?” Luna questioned me, breaking my thoughts.

“No, we can’t stay in one place.” I responded, trying not to elaborate more.

“But why?”

“Well, there’s a lot of bad people out there and we can’t have rumors getting out.” I tried to explain as broadly as I could.

Accepting she wouldn’t be able to get more out of me, she just silently held her head down. While I didn’t want to keep her moving, this was probably the best way to avoid trouble. After all, I’m sure there are a lot of people who would not like to see me around.

“Head up, I’ll be there in a bit.” I told Luna as we reached the hotel.

“Where are you going?” She wondered.

“Well, I’m going to stop by the bar.”

“W-why?” She was slightly concerned.

“Don’t worry, I just need to look into something.” I calmed her down and waved her to go up.

She went up slowly, looking back to try to get a better idea of my intentions. However, all I was showing her was a smile as I waved to her. As she finally made it out of sight, I made my way over to the bar.

I could see a man seated at the back wall of the drinking place. The place wasn’t the best kept and the smell was so strong that it had intoxicated me before I was even able to try drinking. Seeing as that man seemed slightly suspicious, I made my way over to him.

“Take a seat.” He told me as I approached him.

Going along with his words, I sat down across the booth from him. He was a thin man who didn’t really have a lot of muscles, yet his voice was very deep, one I would not expect from a man of his stature.

“What do you want?” He questioned.

“Right. Do you know where the field of windflowers are?” I asked.

“Oh, well yes I do.”

“Great! Tell me where it is.”

“Not so fast. That field’s very dangerous to get to.”

“Dangerous? What would make it so dangerous?”

“The path to it involves the only place in the country where monsters haven’t been cleared out. You’d be eaten alive out there.”

“That’s fine, just tell me where it is.”

“Hold on. The field’s very hard to come by. I’m sure you get what I’m saying.”

“I’ll pay for whatever information you have.”

“Now we’re talking. Sixty silver.”

“Here.” I replied, instantly taking out the money.

While the man had a shocked expression all over his face, when seeing my smugness, he quickly removed that expression. Seeing he couldn’t really argue for more money, he decided to concede and give me the information. He thoroughly explained the direction to go, even giving me a map of Lores with the area marked.

“Thank you for telling me.” I displayed my gratitude.

“Yeah, whatever, just get out already.” He waved me away.

As I got up, I stretched my arms upwards, trying to loosen my muscles. After everything I’ve done today, my muscles had really stiffened up and it was bothering me. I had forgotten to stretch beforehand when we finished shopping. I also didn’t want to stretch before negotiating with this man since it may make me look weaker.

From the large stretch a yawn had also escaped from me, causing me to close my eyes and telling me I was tired from the day. I couldn’t wait to reach the room and go to sleep.

As my yawn was coming to an end, I felt a cold, sharp metal enter the side of my stomach. The striking pain I felt from it caused me to open my eyes to see a girl with pine green hair in front of me. Looking down to where the pain had originated from, I could make out that there was a knife jabbed inside of me.

While I was still trying to process what was happening, the girl swiftly pulled it out of me, causing even more pain than it had when it first entered. I watched as blood came pouring out of my new clothes. Ah, Luna would be so upset about the poor clothes we had just bought.

The pain I was feeling was something I could have easily tolerated a few years ago when I was still used to it, but having taken so much time away from feeling this kind of pain, the familiar feeling had caused me to drop to my knees. Looking up at my assailant, I noticed her face seemed familiar, but I knew I had never seen her before.

“This is for him!” She cried out. “Goodbye Mad Mage!”

“W...w...wai...t” I tried to call to her as she turned around to take off.

However, my voice had been too quiet due to all the pain and blood. It seemed she didn’t even hear me from how quiet I was. As I reached over to start healing myself I was kicked from behind, causing me to fall flat on my stomach.

“Oi, you never told me you were the Mad Mage!” The man I had dealt with earlier yelled out.

At the announcement, the others in the bar also made their way over to me. I kept trying to heal myself but as I tried, all the people in the bar were now kicking me, stopping me from being able to heal myself. I didn’t want to kill them or hurt them, so I couldn’t bring myself to use magic to stop them either.

This wasn’t going to be good if I didn’t heal myself soon. I would lose consciousness and then die. If I died, who would be left for Luna? But maybe it’s better if I die here. Then she won’t have to deal with the hostile cloud which follows us.

“Get away from her!” A voice which sounded like Luna called out.

As the people in front of me cleared out, I could make out Luna standing there. She was wearing the same clothes she had bought just earlier. Looking into her eyes, I saw that there was an unfamiliar hatred in them.

I had seen what she looked like when she was scared or sad. But this was different. I had never seen her with so much rage before, she was practically trembling from it. There was even a great disdain which plastered itself on her face.

“Who the hell are you?” One of the people attacking me asked.

“I know her, she’s with the Mad Mage.” Someone answered the first person.

“All of you shut up.” She spoke in a cold tone.

“Oi, what did you say?” The man who had started the attack had started walking over to her.

With a great gust of wind filling the room, all the people were barely able to stay standing. Some were even being lifted into the sky and taken away. Her power was amazing and completely different from what it normally was, but if she didn’t stop soon then…

“L….Lun...a s…..t.op.” I tried to get the words out but was once again too quiet to reach the intended target.

All of a sudden something had caused her to snap, and in a mere second the whole room had been transformed into ice. The others in the room had also started to freeze over. She had an even greater anger to her with this display. She hadn’t frozen them over completely however, even though with the power she had, she easily could.

The sheer display of power had caused her whitened hair to turn back to its black. Why did that happen? Was it because of all the power?

I remembered I didn’t have time to stay in awe at the display. I needed to stop the bleeding so that I could stop Luna before she went too far. Trying to move my hand so I could heal the wound, I realized I could no longer move my hand. Damn it! It seems like I lost too much blood and this cold wasn’t helping either.

From there on I could only watch as the people around me froze over completely and became sculptures. I watched as Luna started using fire magic afterwards to burn each statue until they completely evaporated. I knew she was angry after seeing all the things they had done, but this was just more cruel than it was revenge.

It seemed even worse than how I would get whenever I saw someone harming innocent people. It was as though she was no longer even in control of her body anymore. My vision was starting to blacken and I could no longer even keep my head up. Instead I had to rest it in the pool of frozen blood which had surrounded me.

“L…..Lu….na.” I tried to get her attention one more time.

This time she took notice as she stopped her rampage. I could make out what seemed to be a worry in her, replacing the anger which inhabited her before. She quickly rushed over to me, most likely to help me out.

“Celestia!” Was the last thing I heard her call out before my consciousness faded out.