The darkness of the night was at its end. The long-awaited brightness was starting from the East. Faint rays of the emerging Sun were not only lighting the earth but were also reviving the life on it. The sun was purging the darkness and a new life was being given to all creatures for one more day. Despite all the other living things having woken up from their slumber, a young boy nearly 15 years old was still enjoying his sleep under the shade of a large tree of the forest.

The reason he was sleeping in the forest was still unknown. The rays soon fell on his eyes and began disturbing his sound sleep. He opened his eyes slowly, stood up and yawned. He was wearing clothes that were the same as that of a countryman. They were neither torn nor old but were just simple.

He took the bag lying beside him and put it on his back.

“Guess, I should get going. They will be here soon”

He started walking towards the North end of the forest; the end that lay near a village; far from the city. The village was same as the forest, glowing with the beauty of nature…full of greenery and for its few people. There were few children playing around, their mothers talking to each other and some low-quality shops.

“Ouch,” a painful voice attracted his attention. He followed the voice and found an old lady to be the source of that painful voice. He leapt towards the old lady who was sitting on the ground in pain. Her back was hurting due to the luggage she was carrying on her back.

“Are you hurt, grandma?”

“No, it’s nothing young one” She tried to hide her misery from him.

“Don’t lie. I heard it clearly. You were screaming in pain”

“It’s nothing to get so serious about. It happens often in old age”

“Let me help you. I will carry your luggage to wherever you are going”

“There is no need to do this. I can carry it”The old lady replied with a smile on her face.

“Don’t worry. My parents taught me to help others when in need. So where do we go?”

He had already put the luggage on his back, not waiting for a reply from her.

“Guess it’s my defeat. That river… ” She pointed with her index finger towards the river flowing not too distant from them,” I have to go to the next village so I will take the horse-driven carriage from there”

“Let’s get going then”

They reached the river bank in no time. A carriage was passing by which was stopped by the boy. He put the luggage in the carriage.

“Thank you very much. Here.. Take this amulet as a gift. It will save you from evil eyes” She handed him over the amulet that she just took out of her pocket.

“Thank you very much. I will cherish it”

The carriage was soon nowhere to be seen. The boy turned his head sideways and behind to make sure that no one was near. He opened the amulet by enchanting a spell. A piece of paper with some words written on it was found in it.

The words were,

“Congrats on your previous mission. It was a 24-hour requiring mission but you accomplished it in just 6 hours. It was nothing surprising from you. As you have still some time left so I have another mission for you. There is a town named Regal on the southeast of this village. There is going to be a drug dealers’ meeting today. We don’t know where they are going to hold the meeting and we don’t even have the time to find it out. The only lead we have is about a shopkeeper in the town that sells drugs secretly. Have your way with him and stop this drug-dealing meeting. Failure is not an option. If you fail, there will be thousands of young ones who will fall prey to the drug addiction for their entire lives. The meeting will be held at 7:00 pm. That’s all we got. Next is up to you. This paper and the amulet will burn on their own as soon as you put it back into the amulet. Good luck”

He put the paper into the amulet, closed it and threw it away. The amulet soon turned into nothing, burnt by the flames.

“Town Regal! Here I come”

With a smile on his face and seriousness in his eyes, he moves towards his destination, Regal Town.

In the sky, the birds flew and on the land, a boy walked. His name was Xeron.

The afternoon in the Regal Town was much cooler as compared to other towns as it was on the shore of the Great Ocean. The town was a huge place for the drug dealers to do their business and not to get caught.

On the right side of the Main Street in the middle of the town was located the shop that he was tasked to investigate and get any information about the place where it was going to happen.

It was a normal medical store with an old man as its owner and the only worker of the shop. No one could suspect an old man to be involved in drugs so it was easy for him to keep his business running in the town.

“Welcome to our medical store, young man. How can I help you?”The old man politely asked him with a smile on his face.

“Good afternoon!” Xeron replied.

“Same to you. So what brings you here today? Is it chest pain, headache or constipation? Whatever it is, my shop has every kind of medicine…from herbs to the tablets….from injections to syrups… So what do you want?”

“Nothing… I just came to say my hello. The truth is………..Night is in need of light"

As soon as Xeron uttered those words, old man’s expression changed. His smile turned into a hideous one.

The street was empty but old man checked to make sure.

“This way” the old man pointed to a corner of the shop. Both walked towards that corner. The old man uttered a magic spell which was more like a code to open some kind of lock. As soon as he stopped saying, the wall beside the corner opened up and a door was now present.

The old man opened the door and both of them entered it. As soon as they closed the door from the inside, the wall came back and door disappeared from the outside view.

Xeron hadn’t thought of him to be storing this much drug supply. The room to which the secret door led was a huge room; larger than the shop itself. No one would believe how such a large room existed in such a small shop but it was all present in front of Xeron. There was no denying it that he wasn’t any low drug dealer. The quantity of the drugs was the proof.

“Surprised to see this much? Well everyone is…at their first time. So which kind of drug your boss wants. I have all types of them so feel free to say”

“Then I will be taking all of them”

“All of them? This is no time to be joking, you know! I have other things to do, so hurry up”

“Don’t worry. You won’t have to do anything after I finish my questions. That’s a promise”

The expression on xeron’s face turned into a serious one as if he was about to kill him right on the spot.

“I, on behalf of Imperial Army, am confiscating all these drugs. If you want to live then answer my questions”

The old man’s body drained in sweat.

“Don’t try anything funny. Other Imperial soldiers have already arrived. Even if you manage to somehow escape from here, there is no way you will escape from them. So cooperate with me and don’t throw away your life. Live in jail for your sins or die here… The choice is always yours”

The drug dealing business that he was involved in for all these years was at its end. He had no choice left other than to cooperate.

“Before all this, please promise me one thing. You won’t tell my family about me being a drug dealer. They don’t anything about it. I was doing it all for them. I needed money for their education, their clothes, the house. I don’t want them to be called a drug dealer’s children so please take pity on me and don’t tell them anything. I beg you”

The old man’s eyes broke into tears. It was not a deceptive trick but a real affection and love from a father towards his children.

“Okay. It wasn’t my intention from the start either. But lie to me and I will change that intention. Enough talk already. Let’s get to the main point”

“Where is the meeting going to be held today?”

“How do you….?”

“I asked a question. Where is it?”

The old man lifted his head up and replied,

“The Noside Hotel. It will start at 7:00 pm. It will be for a half an hour and then all of the dealers will quickly leave the place. But it won’t be easy to capture them. The security would be very tight. But that’s not all you have to worry about. The main problem is the Teleportation device.

If they sense any danger then they will use it and will transport them out of there. So even if you manage to break their defence with your force, it will be too late the moment you reach them.

“That’s quite a problem. But I will think of something. Don’t worry about it?”

“I have some time left before the attack so I will just go and do some shopping….And sorry I lied about you being surrounded by other soldiers. I am the only one on this mission…….Sorry again”

Old man’s eyes widened hearing this.

(Just who is he? He…at such an age…And on top of all this, he is going to attack all of them singly and has no sign of worry at all. Doesn’t he value his life?)

That’s what the old man thought because he didn’t know who Xeron was and what he was capable of.