Makiya

15. The Bakery

Meeting Polkas Reven in the early morning was important. The road to Ribas wasn’t really that unsafe as there were many people traveling. It was the second-closest village to the capital, after all. 

The road to the village goes near a forest and the forest means wild-life. The dangers of nature should always be kept in one’s mind unless you want to be pray to an innocent hungry predator. 

Andrey prepared for the road with a bag of supplies he bought from the marketplace. He had a few books and the map he got the previous day from the accessories shop. 

Now the only problem the young man had was that he had no idea where The Grand Shrine of Philius was located at. 

Due to all the excitement for his new gear or as he joked about it “super-hero costume” or simply called it “clothes”, he completely had forgotten to ask how to get to the desired location.

He went out at 05:00 and started walking towards The Market-Plaza to ask about the location of the shrine. His unusual look attracted many people’s awkward stare. It felt kind of uncomfortable, but the boy tried to ignore that. Everybody thought he wasn’t local and probably came from some village of Midoris, as they judged him by his height too. 

Andrey after being asked multiple times if he came from Midoris couldn’t resist but take out the map and look for the place. 

Midoris was a region in the south parts of Wartair. He marked this down and decided to look through the books to find out what’s the culture there, but he couldn’t do this now as he could be late.

At last, he discovered the location of the shrine. It was huge. He realized he could actually see it for a lot of time now, but he simply didn’t know this was it.

He explored the glorious architecture. “So this is their church?” he spoke to himself in a low voice. 

The building was white. It reminded the boy of the Christian orthodox churches. The dome was obviously special, though. It was full of small circle windows that reflected small bits of light. These specifically made holes on the dome made it look as if it was glowing in blue. 

The closer Andrey got to the shrine he could see that above the big grand doors was a beautifully drawn blue star, beneath which people bowed with hands open, as if they were begging. 

The boy had read about this gesture. In the Axis religion which worshipped Philius, this is how they prayed. The pose looked like begging as they begged for more life, health, and joy.

As the big doors were wide opened Andrey noticed as if illuminating blue light inside.

The dome was engineered in such a way that eternally blue light would keep the shrine bright inside. 

While admiring this beauty Andrey could hear some commotion going on nearby. He overheard people arguing over money. Walking towards this commotion he could see people smiling as if nothing was happening and just minding their own business.

“You do your business and you get your money. I don’t get it!” a man with a headscarf yelled at a young lady. The man was expensively dressed. He had a robe with multiple golden necklaces, rings, and other shiny sparkling gems all over him.

“I am really sorry! I promise I’ll pay as soon as possible!” a girl with dark straight hair in a red dress apologized to the man.

Andrey could see that the girl was obviously the one who worked at the bakery where all this commotion was happening. 

“I still don’t understand why you don’t have the money to pay me! You work all the time!” the man yelled angrily.

“I had to pay for the raw materials today. I promise I will have the money in a week!”

“A WEEK?!” 

“I ..” the girl almost started crying.

“Come here! This is my place!” the man grabbed her face and dragged her inside the bakery. 

Andrey hated meaningless violence. This was an obvious display of power. “Maybe the headscarf-guy is the owner?” he mumbled as he heard some rumble from inside. He then walked in like a normal customer.

There was bread all over. Obviously the man who dragged the girl made this mess. What a waste of food, not to mention the lack of respect for the hungry. 

Short screams of pain were heard after what sounded to be slapping. 

Andrey looked around and could notice a door from which the noises were coming. He didn’t really hesitate to just walk in there silently. 

After a short creaking from the opening door, an unsightly event unfolded before the boy’s eyes.

The man was holding the girl’s face with one hand as she was on her knees and the back of her dress was lowered. Her skin red and spots of blood were noticed. Andrey could see that the small wounds were caused by all the jewelry the man had on his right hand. 

They both looked at the dressed in black boy.

“What do you want, boy?! Can’t you see I’m busy?!” the man asked as if nothing was wrong with what he was doing.

“I’ll give you five seconds to let the girl go.” Andrey threatened in a low voice. His necklace was floating a centimeter above his chest.

“Let her go? She refuses to pay rent, why would I let her go?” the man asked enraged.

“One.”

“Stop playing super-hero and get your cheap costume out of my shop.” 

“But, it’s not - “ the girl tried to speak, but the man grabbed her mouth tightly with his hand and slapped her on the back, followed by her voice in pain.

“Two.” Andrey continued counting as he left his bag on the floor. His face was covered in anger. His stare could kill. 

“I don’t care anymore. Just refund the materials and give me my money!” the man continued torturing the girl completely ignoring Andrey.

“Three,” Andrey mumbled.

At this moment two big strong men sneaked upon Andrey and grabbed him by both his hands restraining him. He showed little resistance. They were both dressed in white and had big muscle mass. It was obvious that they were the headscarf-guy’s henchmen. 

“Four.” 

The rich man ignored Andrey’s warning as he continued the harassment demanding his money.

“But if I refund all my flour and yeast how will I be able to prepare anything? I will be completely bankrupt!” the girl tried explaining as the man continued mumbling how he didn’t care.

It appeared that the girl’s business just had bloomed and she gave all her money for raw products. She was certainly going to be able to pay that money in a week. 

“Five.” Andrey finished the countdown.

He pushed back the two men with his arms, but he couldn’t get free. 

“That’s for playing super-hero, boy. What? Is she your girlfriend? Youngsters like you should just work the field.” the man laughed.

A wide smirk appeared on Andrey’s face. He started laughing out loud. Then he stopped struggling and just remained there with a smile on his face. 

This obviously angered the two big guys. The guy on his left started swinging his left arm for a punch to the boy’s face. 

The moment before the punch made contact Andrey charged his chin into his fist, not managing to break it, but enough to make him hurt and lose his balance. Andrey immediately pushed him back with his left arm and turned towards the other big guy. 

His mouth was open in surprise to what just happened as Andrey’s smile was decorated by a small stream of blood coming from his lower lip. 

He pulled the big guy towards him and delivered an uppercut to his chin. 

This was obviously not enough to take these overweight musclemen down. He had thought as much.

He quickly kicked the guy’s left knee breaking it and making him crumble to the ground screaming in pain. 

This painful scream stressed the rich-man and he quickly grabbed the girl in front of him and just used her as a shield without actually thinking how absurd this was.

The big guy still on his feet got serious and tried to make good use of his height and weight advantage and tried to charge Andrey. Furthermore, this was a great tactic as the room was tight and small. 

The young warrior just simply started punching the big guy’s solar plexus with rapid fast punches. Nothing but his smile was seen as he beat down the big guy, who slowly started falling to the ground. Each time he tried to protect himself by putting a hand before him Andrey hit him in his arm’s tendons leaving him open for more direct attacks. 

The guy with the broken knee on the ground managed to grab Andrey by the leg and pulled him to the ground. 

The man, who’s solar plexus took more than 10 hits, used this moment to recover as he pushed his back to the wall, thinking that once the boy’s on the ground he’ll be easier pray.

To both of their surprise, Andrey replied to this grab with a kick straight to the man’s face which made him lose consciousness.

Andrey rose on his feet again and grabbed the big guy by his Tshirt. He wasn’t smiling anymore. He was dead serious. 

A man who was about 30 centimeters taller than him was looking at him with fear in his eyes. 

“Young man, where did you-” he tried asking with a trembling voice from pain.

Then Andrey hit him in the stomach with all his might. The big guy crumbled to the ground.

“I’ll hurt the girl if you get closer!” the man with the headscarf threatened as his voice trembled in fear.

“Hurt her? What have you been doing all this time?”  Andrey asked as he walked towards them.

“I’ll break her neck!” 

Andrey stopped. He was only about four meters away from reaching the girl.

“You will kill her? What will save you then?” 

“I know you won’t want to see your girlfriend’s body cold on the floor, right?!” the rich businessman tried to continue his threats.

“Do you want me to tell you a little secret?” Andrey asked raising his head to lock his gaze on the rich man.

“W-what?” 

“It’s the first time I see this girl.”

“Aa-ha-aaaaah!” the man yelled and pushed her towards Andrey so he would grab her and try to escape by running by them.

Andrey caught the girl, but simply put his foot to the side tripping the rich-man to the ground. 

The poor girl’s heart was racing crazy and her fear was beyond belief.

The man on the ground tried crawling over his henchmen, but Andrey simply stepped on him, kicked him to rotate him on his back, and sat down on his stomach. 

“Don’t hurt me, I’ll give you money, I’ll give you jewelry, I’ll give you everything you want!” the man in complete panic screamed.

Andrey leaned above the man’s face. His necklace standing unnaturally mid-air and his eyes glowing slightly red. 

“AAAAAAAARHRHH YOU’RE A MONSTER!” the man screamed.

“Calm down. Shut up.” the boy replied as he placed his hand before the man’s face. 

“Do you see this? “ he asked. The rich-man in obvious confusion and fear just nodded.

“I won’t hit you with my fist or my arm…” Andrey calmed the man. Joy and relief were all over his face.

“What do you want? How much do you want? I‘ll give it right away!” the man quickly offered.

“...I will use only this finger.” Andrey ignored the offer as he continued his sentence and bent his fingers to show only his forefinger. “... Because you’re weak.”

Then Andrey placed his palm on the man’s face and pulled his forefinger with his left hand and then let it go slapping the man’s forehead right underneath the headscarf. 

“AAA! Stop it!” the man yelled in pain.

“Come on, you can’t possibly say this is so painful. It’s just a finger.” Andrey closed in on his face and whispered. A drop of blood from his bleeding lip fell on the man’s face causing him to panic completely. 

“Andrey, don’t do this!” a familiar voice was heard in the boy’s head.

“This isn’t you. Pull yourself together! I believe in you!” the gentle voice repeated again. An object flew inside the bakery and landed on Andrey’s shoulder. It was Dea. And the voice was Dea’n’ha’s. 

She had sensed Andrey’s evil energy. 

The boy looked around. His necklace no longer floating mid-air and his eyes returning to normal. He felt a cool breeze and immediately stopped hitting the man’s forehead.

“Get out and next time wait for the girl to pay you your rent! You’re an obvious businessman, you should know how trades work!” he screamed into the man’s face.

The girl was petrified sitting down in the corner of the room. 

Guards were heard rushing into the bakery. Obviously the commotion and screams from inside made enough ruckus and they were informed of a fight. Fights really rarely happened, but they still did. 

“Quickly! This way!” the girl pointed with a whispering voice towards an underground passage, that was, of course, the storage room.

The guards walked in and saw the beat-up men and the rich-man lying on the ground.