From Player To Npc

Harbin started sharing with Shingi some of the stories of him and Garry when they were younger.

The two of them used to travel around to experience the world and what it could offer them.

They helped and met many people in their adventures, including Shingi's and Annoue's mother, Angel's Feather.

Fate had the paths of the three crossing many a time from which a bond of friendship was born. Later that bond was developed further for Garry and Angel, but Harbin wasn't aware of the exact moment when friendship turned to love for those two.

He then was offered a job as the Captain of a town, which they have helped many times.

Garry was also offered a similar offer to open a shop, but he decided to continue traveling with Angel until one day, he had sent a letter to Harbin that Angel was pregnant.

Harbin was happy for his brother even if it was unheard of a Blessed One giving birth up until this point.

He offered for his new family to move here, but Garry seemed happy with this new home and even with his new shop, even if it wasn't as advanced as the one offered to him in the past.

Shingi learned that Garry was a Base Rank Smith, but he could advance his Crafting Skills to Master Rank for a limited time with his special eyes abilities. But in exchange, he could never get his Skills to be at Master Rank no matter how much he tried.

But Garry had told Harbin that he was happy even with that drawback, as he hadn't ever expected to reach Master Rank on his own.

Now and then, he was able to speak with them through magical means or uses of items like what Shingi saw Roth used to talk with Jax the other day.

The talks stopped when Shingi was born, and later Harbin learned what had happened. He sent one of his trustworthy people to learn as his brother or Angel weren't answering any of his messages.

When he learned what happened and that his nephew was born cursed, he was ready to leave his duty to join his brother, but he was stopped. Over the years, the town became more dependent on him, and he was considered its unofficial mayor.

Some parties didn't like him having that much power, and some were worried about what would happen if he left the town at any point.

He tried to help to the best of his abilities to search for a cure, but nothing seemed to work.

Then one day, almost two years ago, near the time Shingi had heard from Aneta that his mother completely disappeared, Angel came to visit Harbin.

As Harbin was ready to speak of his meeting with her, the door of their private room was knocked.

The food and drinks had arrived some time ago, so they weren't expecting anything else, and it was too early for the delivery from the bank.

"Who is it?"[Harbin]

The door opened, and the female waitress who had brought them their drinks and food entered the room.

"I am sorry for the interruption, but I've got a message for Mr. Vangel."[Female waitress]

Shingi looked at her, confused about how she knew this name. He hadn't used it while in town, and Harbin didn't use it to call him.

"Ms. Meyana of the Strings of Four Seasons said she would like your presence or she won't progress with her dance. She told me that you are supposed to be here and described you."[Female waitress]

A whistle was heard by Harbin when she finished her sentence.

"I see that a beauty has noticed someone. And Ms. Meyana, nonetheless, I guess you were actually born under a lucky star."[Harbin]

Shingi ignored the comment of his new uncle as he considered why she would want him to attend her show.

"We are going to be out soon."[Shingi]

"Oh, thank you. Boss is ready to have a heart attack as many people started shouting and getting angry for the delay."[Female waitress]

She bowed out of respect and left the room, closing the door behind her.

Shingi then turned towards Harbin.

"Do you think that she is one of them?"[Shingi]

"Hm, what do you mean?"[Harbin]

"Meyana. Do you think she can see the true color of our eyes when we have them activated?"[Shingi]

Harbin's face became serious, suddenly realizing what Shingi was referring to.

"It is a possibility. Meyana is indeed rumored not to show interest to others no matter what she got offered. But here be one of them? If it is true, then it will be troublesome."[Harbin]

"So should I just leave, or should we encounter her to see how she reacts when I have my eyes deactivated?"[Shingi]

Harbin gave it some thought before responding.

"The latter one, I think, is our best option. Even if she is one of them, she won't act out in the open, especially if I am nearby."[Harbin]

Shingi nodded at the stood up, and left the room.

They found the female waitress not too far, who lead them to special seats reserved for them.

Typically, they were reserved for the owner and a friend of his. But under those particular circumstances and Meyana demands, they were given to them.

Some people learned the reason behind the delay and were watching towards the direction towards Shingi with piercing stares which stopped the moment Harbin noticed them.

Smoke appeared in the middle of the scene. Smoke started moving and creating a mini whirlwind that started becoming green.

Part of the whirlwind wind became leaves, and it exploded, making the leaves move outwards of it and a figure appearing where the whirlwind was.

After a few seconds, music started playing, and people started whistling and clapping as they noticed that the figure was that of Meyana.

She held a scimitar at each of her hands and started her special dance, which seemed to be part of different slashing techniques combined with artistic touches.

Her blades created different color lines, with each of her swings which stayed in place and disappeared after a few seconds.

At some point, everyone went quiet as only the music could be heard in the room.

Her moves were beautiful and quiet, and people thought it would ruin the experience to be interrupted by any noise. Some even heard their breath.

Shingi knew that this wasn't the typical dance of her, and she rarely was using the blade dancing routine.

He had to admit that her moves were exceptional, and he also had some hard time keeping up with some of them.

The dance lasted a couple of minutes, but it felt like hours passed, admiring this beautiful scene for some.

In the end, she ended her performance by throwing one of her scimitars right at Shingi.

It was turning in the air, and Shingi could tell that the hilt would hit him only as it was meant to, but he wasn't planning to let it happen either way.

It was clear that she wanted to make a scene, and he was happy to oblige.

He used one of his Mana Seeds to cast HASTE as the blade reached him.

He grabbed it by the hilt and vanished.

Everyone had followed the scimitar and was confused about what happened.

They turned towards where Meyana was standing was an explanation and were surprised by what they saw.

Shingi was in front of her, kneeling, holding the scimitar to her like an offering.

"I think this belongs to you, Miss Meyana."[Shingi]

There was silence for a second before a person started slowly clapping and was joined by another. More started joining them at clapping, and in the end, everyone started clapping.

They thought that all this was part of the show as Meyana had delayed the start until his arrival.

Meyana picked up her scimitar and bowed at the audience, and Shingi stood up and did a similar bow.

"Next time, if you want to draw my attention, you can just ask."[Shingi]

He said this sentence so that only Meyana would hear it.

He moved back to his seat next to Harbin, who seemed happy to see that he was fine.

"Is everything good?"[Harbin]

"Yes, it is. By the way, she isn't one of them."[Shingi]

Harbin was confused as her actions showed the opposite, but he couldn't discuss it out here.

They remained for the rest of the show, but Meyana didn't appear again.

It seemed that this was her only appearance for today.

When the last part of the show happened, people started leaving, and Shingi and Harbin returned to their private room but not before ordering some dinner.

A messenger had come from the bank during the show and gave Harbin a small package, which he stored in his Spatial Ring.

Before they entered the room, Shingi stopped Harbin.

"Just let me do the talking."[Shingi]

Before Harbin had a chance to ask what he meant, Shingi opened the door, and they saw Meyana being in the room sitting by herself.

"You sure took your time. I didn't think you would like our show that much. Or did you do it on purpose?"[Meyana]

Shingi and Harbin entered the room and sat across from her.

"So your eyes can really see them."[Shingi]

Harbin was confused as Shingi told him before that she wasn't one of the people who could see the true nature of their eyes.

"How do you know this? And who are you? Or should I say who you used to be?"[Meyana]

Shingi had come across a special ability that a few  Seasonal Elves were born with. The ability to see the soul of someone.

He was confident that his soul would be looking weird in her eyes as he was an old adult in the body of a young teenager.

That was the reason why she attacked him or made it look like she was attacking him as people with strange souls were most time people possessed by Demons

"Who I used to be isn't important. As for how I know that you can see my soul... well, I had helped a few of your race and they trusted me with this knowledge. And by help, I mean real help, and nothing bad happened to them before you come to wrong assumptions."[Shingi]

He mentioned the ability of Harbin to understand why she wasn't one of the people he referred to, but Harbin was still confused.

"Who told you this information."[Meyana]

"Hylrastra the Protector of the Dark Woods."[Shingi]

She slammed her hand at the table when she heard that name.

"That is impossible. She would never trust a human with that type of information."[Meyana]

"And how would you be sure about this. She told me that you hadn't visited her for the last 200 plus years. A ruthless move for a daughter to pull on her mother."[Shingi]

Her eyes widened, hearing the last sentence of his.

"How do you know this. I never mentioned it to anyone."[Meyana]

"I know a lot of things exiled Princess. I haven't visited her for a long time, but I am sure she waits for your return. Past deeds can be forgotten even by Elves."[Shingi]

Her eyes changed, and her always happy face showed to be sad as a tear started moving down her left cheek.

"I... I can go back?"[Meyana]

Shingi stayed calm. After a few minutes of soft crying, she stood and moved towards the exit of the room.

Before she completely left the room, though, she turned towards Shingi.

"Thank you."[Meyana]

When she left, Shingi turned towards Harbin, who was completely confused.

"What just happened? Who are you?"[Harbin]

Shingi sighed as he started explaining everything to him. He had decided that he could trust him.

He was family, after all.