Today was a joyous day for Clear View. The intruders had been repelled and both Clive and Jane were alive. In celebration of the recovery of Clive and Jane from the cave, the entire village is throwing a large party. In the middle of the village plaza was rows upon rows of tables filled to the brim with foods and drinks. Even large kegs of alcohol were brought out. The entire village was not holding anything back when throwing this celebration.

“Oh, the irony. This celebration is for me and Jane being well but I can’t even go out and celebrate. Oh, how tragic my life is.”

Outside of the building the cheers of joys and clamor from partying could be heard but Clive was stuck within the clinic. The clinic was a neat wooden building that had multiple rooms for patients to rest in. In two of these rooms were Jane and Clive. Both of them still had to recover from their respective injuries.

“You can go party after you heal up.”

“How long will it take for me to recover Doctor Frank.”

“For a regular human it would take months for the kind of burns you have on your back but considering you’re a combat locksmith, probably a week or so.”

Before Jane had come to the village of Clear View and became Doctor Frank’s assistant, Doctor Frank had been the only doctor for many years prior. Doctor was currently 80 years old and had been the doctor of Clear View ever since he was 20. Both the doctor and the mayor were monsters just because of their age. A normal person in Clear View usually lived til 70 but both of them had outlived 70 and were still healthy at their age.

“How long do you think a person can live Doctor.”

“I don’t know. Everyone dies differently so some live shorter lives and some longer lives.”

“Exactly. I don’t know when I am going to die so I should be out there drinking and partying to my heart's content.”

“No can do Clive. You ain’t going out to party and that is final. If you keep complaining I will bring Claire in here.”

“Ok.”

……

“Hello Claire. I see you brought Kan with you.”

Right now both Claire and Kan had entered Jane’s bedroom. Since Jane was the doctor’s assistant she had her own personal bedroom so her room was more decorated than the other rooms for patients. When Claire had entered the room she still could not look at Jane’s because of what happened a few hours ago.

“Hey Jane. How are your injuries.”

“Oh, they aren’t much. Clive protected me from more danger so I don’t have that many injuries.”

“That’s a relief.”

The room turned silent. Neither of them talked to each other and the atmosphere became awkward.

“You know it’s been quite a while since I last visited you. When Kan was born it was always you visiting us.”

“Yeah it has been quite a while since you visited me. You should come over more often with Kan.”

It was once again silent. Not even Kan made a noise in this silent atmosphere but that was because he was asleep.

“Hey Claire can you look me in the eyes. It hurts being ignored and I have something to tell you.”

Claire slowly raised her head and looked towards Jane. What she saw in Jane’s eyes were the emotions of fear and anxiety.

"What is it Jane."

“I love you Claire.”

“Uhwawawa. But...but i’m married.”

“Let me finish Claire. I am not hoping for anything to come out of this, I...I just wanted to tell you my feelings. I’ve been in love with you for 8 years. After that incident 8 years, I had contemplated on taking my life on numerous occasions. I felt that no matter how much I washed myself, I always felt dirty. I believed that no one would ever love me again because of what happened to me but you were there for me. Every day you came and visited me and no matter what you talked about, you talked about it with joy. You told me how your day was or how pretty the sky was or even how your cooking never turned out well but whenever you talked about it to me, you talked with a smile. I wanted to protect that smile, I wanted to be what made you smile, and that is when I found out that I loved you. It hurts when you avoid looking at me, it feels like you are rejecting my existence. Can we go back to how we use to be, can...can we still be friends.”

“Of course Jane, of course we can still be friends. I’m sorry for not realizing your feelings and ignoring you earlier.”

After they were done making up, they had gone back to how they use to be. They started talking about random topics like how Kan was so cute, how Claire’s cooking has improved, or how stupid Clive was at times. As they kept talking knocks could be heard from Jane’s door.

“Claire are you done in there. I have to check up on Jane’s condition.”

“Yeah I’m done Doctor Frank. Jane can you take care of Kan, the mayor and I are going to go talk to Clive.”

“Yeah sure.”

Claire left Kan in Jane’s embrace and Kan started mumbling. Kan had woken up earlier but was being breastfed so he couldn’t interrupt their conversation.

“Did you get your feelings across Jane.”

“Yeah doctor. I did.”

“Mama. Maamaa.”

“Silly boy, I’m not your mama.”

……

“So did you figure out why those black clothed men were after Jane.”

“Was it the same bandits from 8 years ago.”

“No, it weren’t those bandits. The situation is much worse than just regular bandits.”

The atmosphere in the room was stiff. The room was the exact opposite of the festivities occuring outside in the plaza. It was like the rescue of Clive and Jane was not a joyous occasion at all.

“They were after Claire.”

“What they were after me.”

“So it’s already time. Do you know which kingdom those men came from.”

“I don’t know which kingdom they came from but the self-destruction technique of one of the men was a dark-arts skill. I assume those men were hired from the Assassins Guild by some kingdom. Since we have killed all of the black clothed men we probably have a few more years to prepare before others are sent out to scout this village.”

“We don’t have much time to prepare do we. All of this is happening a lot earlier than I expected.”

While Clive and the mayor were talking about what to do in the future, Claire was silent the entire time. She was worried about Kan’s future. If worse comes to worse neither her nor Clive will be there to raise Kan. With Kan’s high potential as both a combat locksmith and mage locksmith he would face problems in the future. Some people may see Kan’s potential as great for the city-state of Key but some people may try to kill him because he has the potential to become to powerful.

‘How can I protect my son. What can I do for him.’

“Clive, we must prepare Kan for the future.”