Smiley's Eyes had turned back to a fainter yellow. But Ananke had failed to notice it. That the boy awakening was not the 2nd stage he called "Awakened".
That his eyes were slowly losing its colors once again as his rose was fading away. Eaten off by something that overwrites the laws of awakening itself.
Ananke froze as he turned his head around and his eyes widened even more as his pupils dilated by the weird dark mist the boy was seeing before he mumbled with a slight smile 'Ha! You are probably imagining it?'
Ananke seemed genuinely confused but by then the mist had already disappeared from sight like it never existed.
Smiley responded 'Keeping secrets? I guess I will not tell you about my dream of the white haired—' but just as the kid was talking, they got interrupted by a sudden knock at the door.
The door banged and the kid went to check who it was.
'"White" what now?' questioned Ananke but Smiley could not hear as it was overshadowed by the voice outside the door
'It`s me.' An unfamiliar voice came from behind the door.
Smiley replied 'Whose "me"?'
The voice stated in formal speech 'It`s the leader of the town guard. Captain of Town of Satus' but the kid who had never actually met him so naturally asked 'And what is it that you want?'
Ananke cut in and said 'We will come downstairs' to the leader and said to Smiley scratching his head 'You know, it's kind of complicated but you should hear him out'
'Why does everyone want to disturb my lazy sunday.'
'It's Wednesday…' said Ananke, reminding the kid.
Ananke thought as he looked at the boy leaving the room 'Those erratic movements eariler… He must be extremely sensitive to everything after awakening…'
Smiley paused and looked back 'Are you coming or not?'
Ananke smiled 'Yea don`t worry' as he walked out while Smiley kept the door open for him.
Ananke thought 'Such a sweet boy' while Smiley thought process was a bit… different 'I am not leaving you alone in her room.'
Both of them went down stairs and the Leader was sitting there waiting for them at the table. They both sat down beside him.
'So there are two things for you. First is an apology for the man who tried to assassinate you.' said the leader.
'I was about to be what?' questioned the kid with a confused look.
He explained to him about the situation of what went on and how the offender, Radibo, was charged and then listed off the camp. After which he tried to get revenge but ultimately failed and how his behaviour was out of order recently.
Leader said 'He does not usually act like this. I am not even sure what is going on in his head' and brought them outside the tavern where Radibo, who had medium-long hair covering some of his eyes beneath them, black turtle neck clothing with an open trench coat whose collars were open as one collar covered his mouth. He was restrained and sitting on the ground alone on his knees.
The kid saw Radibo, he had a tired look and dark circles below his eyes and had not much reflection in his dull eyes as his narrow and sharp eyes looked down.
Leader stated 'He will be sent to prison with a harsh sentence.'
Radibo's eyes just glazed Smiley as they looked at one another and he instantly looked down right as he turned his face before tightly closing his eyes and biting his own lips from inside.
The kid questioned the Leader 'What if the attempted murder charge were to drop.'
'You mean to drop your charges? You know it`s a serious crime to try to even kill someone. One can even be sentenced to death'
'And I am still alive so it all goes well.'
'That`s just childish.'
'I don`t know… it`s better to be childish than holding grudges'
'Are you not even mad? How are you sure he wouldn`t do it again?'
Smiley replied with no hesitation 'When someone follows rules so rigidly, they will eventually become inflexible and break down. Even when you say all that, You are the one who left him outside alone but he chose not to run away.'
This confused the leader further as it was not far from the truth which begged a question to 'Why is he speaking in 3rd person… and an old man? Fariz, what were you teaching him… I can not figure out if this is childish thinking or not…'
The leader sighs 'You are sure of it? I guess he will only face discipline and a few years in prison for assault against me. I wouldn`t be dropping mine as he needs to learn his lesson'
Smiley simply replied back with an innocent smile 'I know, I never said anything about dropping my assault charges.'
Leader looked puzzled for a moment. 'He is smart for someone of his age… No, even many adults are not that perspective. He can be a great investigator. I am going to hire him'
He paused and questioned to himself 'No wait… Could it be that he is trying to gain brownie points? No, that`s not possible. I checked thoroughly."
He continued, 'As for the second thing, you were charged with suspicion of murder.'
'I see… wait, I was under suspicion?'
The kid thought 'He probably thinks I was trying to be nice…'and questioned 'Wait what am I even under suspicion for?'
The leader took a deep breath as he stated, 'We found you near the enemies who attacked the scout party and you were with two of them on the ground.'
'Three' said smiley as the leader looked at him and questioned 'What?' without a hint of surprise.
'There were three of them. One was with a horse and two footman'
'There were no remains of this third man you speak of.'
Smiley feeling cornered defended 'He was bleeding out from arm and chest when I passed out. He should had been next to me.'
Leader responded 'No need to worry about that. We found trances of struggle. That's why I wanted to confirm that he could still be alive— But there was no blood found on the scene. Only a single horse was captured as a runaway as you mentioned.'
Leader thought 'The story does match so it would be an outsider but why. Why even buy a single horse, leaving behind trances of their crime. They did not even had the need to carry stuff as bodies were untouched.'
The leader looked at the boy who was nervous and recalled a marking of sword being struck down onto the ground 'That mark was clean and dirt was not disturbed around it. Only someone equal to the ranks of sword master could pull that sword from ground without uprooting the dirt. But why??? there is no marit in doing any of that and An Outsider would never know of that tradition. The only lead we have are two bodies and an outsider who vanished without a trace'
Just as Leader was thinking, Ananke stepped in and patted his shoulder 'It was an outsider so can you stop messing with the Kid?'
Ananke noticed that he was fact checking the boy while acting dumbfounded without Smiley even realizing.
'Wasn`t he interrogating me?` the kid thought to himself and questioned 'What even is an outsider?'
Ananke replied 'Outsiders are living who are not originally from this world. You know how Veil connects two worlds and their creatures burn outside the Veil? Somehow outsiders are not affected by that as they freely roam around this world. No one has any idea of how they came to our world but on death, their skin burns off just like the creatures. They usually leave behind some remains but this one just disappeared without a single trace which is causing a bit of trouble.'
The Leader and Ananke both were talking among themself while Smiley thought 'Is that what you meant by no one to remember you by…'
Ananke took the Leader out of Smiley's reach and explained, 'That boy is super sensitive right now due to awakening. His body and emotions both are undergoing changes so anything can cause his Trigger to be changed into something undesirable. I don`t want to repeat my past with that boy.'
Leader at Smiley staring oddly in the sky trying to reach out the air, grabbing onto nothing which looked weird to bystanders.
Leader sighed, 'Alright. I'll use your name in the papers. You carry enough power to keep those power-hungry higher-ups from investigating further, and I will keep his awakening under wraps and state that he was found already awakened, with the bodies of his comrades, in those footer notes which no one reads'
^ (Note: Awakening side-effects are not well known so they would even believe that awakening brought someone from the brink of death… Yea, people like them are the reasons why so much false information flows in. Poor researchers)
Ananke thought, 'Foot notes huh… No wonder you have such a high reputation of always cheating those nobles… Thanks and don`t worry, I, The "Ananke" will take full responsibility for it.'
The leader sighed at the end after discussing with Ananke and said 'I guess that`s it. You were already freed from any suspicion. I just had to confirm it.'
Smiley thought to himself 'So he really was messing with me'
The leader called the kid and asked 'Hey kid, what's your name?'
Smiley smiled, 'Smiley.'
Leader asked confused, 'Smiley? What does that mean?'
He just shrugged his shoulders, responding 'I don`t know.'
Leader seemed puzzled. 'I have never heard of that word honestly.' and continued 'Well anyways, Thank you Smiley, if you want any help, come meet me at the town guard post. Just tell them I sent you.' as he walked away taking the cuffed man with him.
The leader stopped in the middle and asked Ananke 'How did you know it was our man and not the Veil Protector or him falling over causing that swollen face?'
Ananke simply replied 'I guessed it'
… the Leader froze as he scratched the bone of his eye roof and took a deep breath 'So you taunted us and even the king himself just because of a guess? I know the king is lenient with you but this is still—'
He paused 'You know what, never mind this is just going to give me another headache. You are not that stupid yourself' as he slowly walked away with Redibo.
After he walked off, Ananke was slightly smiling while holding it in. Smiley looked at him in confusion and asked 'What`s with you again?'
Ananke replied 'He wanted you to ask him his name. That is why he said to use his name. Yet you completely forgot to'
Smiley realized he never asked him his name but now it was too late as he thought 'Who did I get stuck with…'
Ananke who was laughing stopped when he heard the boy asking him in concern 'About the outsider… What do you think happened to him?'
Ananke simply replied with 'He probably just returned back home.'
'I see…' said smiley as he looked into the sky and wondered 'Was he also taken by the butterflies, carried by the wind?'
While Ananke showed no expression of it, he himself was too wondering if he had really died and danger that could still loom.
Smile asked 'and about when we were in the void…'
Ananke noticed he was embarrassed and said 'Yea?'
Smiley tried to hint 'About that… you know. I was pretty light headed that…'. Ananke replied with 'That?'
'You know… about the promise.'
Ananke just laughed it off. Smiley replied with 'Stop laughing, you can forget about that or I will wipe those memories for you.'
Ananke simply replied as he smiled 'Don't worry, even if a blue or green devil comes for me, I am still stronger than any of them.'
'You say that as if you fought against those centuries old beings.'
Ananke taunted saying 'Maybe I did'
Smiley just sighed and said 'Sure thing old man—'
Ananke joked 'Centuries old huh? I could have bet you would still believe in those legends.'
This rubbed Smiley the wrong way to which he responded, 'Hey, you said it yourself that you were the strongest right?'
'Yea why?'
Smiley, who seemed a little annoyed, picked up a small twig, wielding it the same as he once did as a child and said 'Stay still, I will clean your memories right away.'
Rhina walked out to catch fresh air only to find them and wondered 'What are these two fools doing so early in the morning?'
'Well I am glad he is alright…' as she smiled.
They looked like older and younger brothers fooling around than strangers.
Ananke paused, stepped back, dodging it while cleaning as he asked 'Oh yea by the way how did you come up with Smiley?'
Smiley replied 'Some outsider who wanted to kill me said that.'
…
'Maybe I should be concerned after all'