July 17th, Year 984 6:00 p.m.
The enquiry between the witness who claimed to have information that could lead to a breakthrough in the case and Roland seemed to approach its end. Roland had an agitated look and was feeling quite impatient, which was rare considering his mental temperament and the patience he had acquired over the years as an officer.
Not able to hold it in anymore, he spoke in a stern voice that echoed throughout the tent, "I apologize for interrupting you, but you told that you had information that you needed to tell me immediately, but so far all you have been talking about is utter nonsense. If you do not have any information to share, please leave immediately before I send you to the hospital with a few broken ribs."
On his other side was the witness who was a male who looked to be an ordinary high school student. He stopped talking and got up from his seat. He took a handful of tissues that Leonard had used and slowly walked behind Roland. Roland was turning his head to see what the witness was doing, which was when he saw an arm approaching his neck. Before he even realized what was happening, the witness who seemed completely harmless was behind Roland whose arm was around his neck holding it in a chokehold. Without a delay of a single second, the other arm of the witness flew towards Roland's mouth, stuffing the tissues in his mouth, suppressing his ability to produce a voice from his throat. Roland struggled his best to remove himself from the chokehold but was unable to remove the witness' arm which was locked around his neck like a snake trying to squeeze his prey.
Roland was afraid, he could clearly feel the disparity between his strength and his oppressor's. This was uncanny considering that Roland's strength is greater than any mundane human's strength. This was when his fear turned into despair. He realized that his oppressor was the culprit for sure.
But it didn't make any sense. Roland had seen the man now. As long as Roland lives, the oppressor will get caught by the system no matter how much he tries to slither away, but if he kills Roland, he will land himself in a bigger problem since Roland's death will not be taken lightly by SORC. He started to think about what type of supernatural ability he would have which would help him escape from the predicament, but before his thoughts progressed far enough, his consciousness slipped away. The witness took Roland's head and placed it on the desk carefully, making it seem as if he was taking a short nap to alleviate his stress. The witness grabbed Roland's neck from above. After a minute, he left his neck, not harming him any further.
The witness stepped outside Roland's partition of the tent, a few metres away he saw a group of three police officers. He stepped towards them quietly making it seem as if he just wanted to pass by them not wishing to interact with them in any way. Right after he crossed the group of police officers, he rotated his body and landed a knifehand chop on the carotid sinus at the base of the neck of all three officers. They lost their consciousness before even realizing what happened. The witness lifted his foot, so that one of the police officers' bodies would land on it and grabbed the other two police officer's bodies in each of his hands by the collar of their uniform to prevent any sound from the fall of their bodies.
The police officer who had introduced him to Roland was among the three police officers. After carefully making it seem like the three of them were taking a nap, he left the tent without being seen by anyone else. He was looking for Leonard but was unable to find him. It seemed he left with his sisters.
***
The drizzling seemed to have stopped and the starry sky started to make its appearance.The green tent was being dismantled and all the police officers seemed to have left the crime scene. Under the starry sky, a man in black suit whose neck was adorned by a bright red tie seemed to have a somber expression on his face. He was smoking a cigar while thinking about the case.
'Quite a tricky case, every evidence points it to being a case of natural accident, but that child is adamant about it being a case of murder. Of course, I am inclined to believe him because of having had the opportunity to work alongside his father… but how am I going to explain this to the higher ups?
I can't let a case be open just because of my instinct. And there is that female witness who seemed to have seen the car slide and burst in flames. For some reason I do not want to believe her even though her palm was on the truth seeking crystal.'
He dropped the cigar and stomped on it, putting it out continuing to stare at the beautiful night sky. He paid no attention to his injury on the neck, as if nothing happened before.
***
A young girl got up from her bed, just being awoken from her sleep due to the noise of plasters and hurried movements in her house. Her face was still puffy and blue eyes lost their shine, in fact tears wanted to roll across her face, unfortunately her tear glands had all dried up. She stepped out of her room, trying to find the cause of the disturbance. She reached the living room of their house. The living room was completely empty devoid of any furniture, the walls were naked with several nails stuck on them but nothing hanging from the nails.
She saw several packaged wooden boxes beside which, there was a young man whose hair was uncombed and unruly, his bright blue eyes shining with emotions that she could not understand, she approached him and, with two fingers, lightly caught the back of his shirt, then asked, her voice filled with doubt, "Leo, what's happening?"
The young boy turned to her , his lips which were devoid of any emotion split apart, "we are leaving this house… there is no point in living here anymore. We will live in an apartment in the main city, sister will soon be leaving us and staying in the dorms of her college, so we need to be somewhere where our needs can be readily satisfied."
She nodded. There was an awkward silence between both of them. She didn't know what to say. She knew that her brother was maintaining a strong appearance but he was as hurt as her. He could not show it because he was the responsible and dependable type.
After a while, he was the one to break the silence,
"Maya…. Mom and dad… are gone. They won't be able to pamper us anymore, they won't laugh at our stupid fights anymore, they won't cook food for us anymore, most of all they can't witness us growing older."
Tears started flowing down his cheeks. Seeing him cry, Maya said with weakness in her voice, her hands wiping off his tears, "It's ok Leo, we will live like how they wanted us to live, we will make them proud. I am sure Goddess Luminos will grant them solace and allow them to watch over us."
A girl in her late teens, who looked like a grown up version of Maya was watching from afar.Dorothy, having heard their conversation, she thought to herself, 'There is a month left before I join college, I need to make sure to make everything ready for them to live by then… money isn't an issue right now, i just need to find a place for them to live in comfort and have food, they also need to change their schools since we are moving away.I should ask Qing for advice, he would be well versed in these issues.'
As the oldest sibling, Dorothy had to be strong and be the pillar of support for her family, due to constraints she simply didn't have time to even register her sadness and bask in it.
***
A few vans came and took away all the packaged wooden boxes, the house was now completely desolate and devoid of any life. It was a huge storeyed house with a backyard.
A few days ago, it was a residence of a family of 5, now soon going to be abandoned and locked away. Maya and Dorothy were sitting in a taxi outside the huge house. Leo wanted to see the house one last time before leaving it for the unforeseeable future.
He was walking away from the house, but something caught his eye, a small paper hanging out from the post box at the entrance of the house. He took out the piece of paper. It had only 3 words, every letter capitalised. It was written in a hurry and the handwriting was sloppy and barely understandable. It read,
"BECOME A NOBLE".
Leo was able to read it but not understand it. Who sent this? Why did they send this to him? Most of all what shocked him was the absurdity of the statement. One cannot simply become a noble because they wish to, the king of the country has to personally recognise the excellence of a person and ascend them to nobility. Sure, his parents were rich, but money cannot buy nobility.
While he was still thinking, his sister called him to come into the car, since it was getting quite late. He quickly tore the paper into small pieces and scattered them in front of the house, he gave one last look of longing to the house and got into the car.
He had decided what he had to do, he simply had to do something which he thought was impossible to achieve. But he didn't care, he knew that if he wished for it he would be able to achieve it.
There was no logical reason, but he was willing to trust the author of that piece of paper.
It would be many years before he realized that the single, seemingly insignificant strand of thread he had woven today would become responsible for the creation of the intricate tapestry of this world's future.