Tria: Kingdom of Aurial, the first instalment of the Tria otome game series. When games like these have big competitions it is usually tough for startup or newcomer companies to gain popularity, except Tria didn't have this problem. They went all out with their marketing as if they had an endless pit of money, not leaving a single stone unturned. Revealing snippets of their upcoming game running on the latest engine, triple A standard but free, while also releasing gameplay footage, advertisements on YouTube and Instagram, all the way down to merchandise.
But none of those were how he found out.
Inside a white tent supported by a single log , oryn sat down cross legged with a broken smile as he stared at his hands, a clay bowl filled to the brim, the soup inside bubbling sluggishly as if it were radioactive. He stared at it for a moment.
Amazing. Just amazing. I know I didn't wish for a five star but even a zero point five star meal would have been better than this.
While Oryn sat grumpily a figure beside him brushed his hair gently. "What's wrong Oryn, don't feel like eating?"
His gaze shifted to the figure. "O-oh, no mother it's just, it's..." Oryn stuttered nervously, his eyes darting around the way an introvert's do. "It's just..."
His mother breathed a quiet chuckle. "The food doesn't look appetizing does it."
Oryn smiled sheepishly. "Yeah."
Sitting to oryns eright she continued to brush his hair and Oryn didn't refuse. He wasn't sure if it was his own feeling or something left behind by the previous Oryn, but either way he didn't mind it as much as he probably should have.
"You were always a picky eater you know, even as a baby you refused to."
"Okay mother, I know," Oryn cut in, cheeks blushed . "You really don't have to go into detail."
Sitting to his left, Allen nudged his shoulder without a word, gesturing pointedly to his empty bowl.
Oryn exhaled through his nose.
"Just don't tell your dad," he muttered under his breath. With the two mothers deep in their own conversation he tipped his bowl sideways, pouring the sludge in slowly, little by little.
"Oryn." The voice came sharp and immediate. "What do you think you are doing. You might not like it but you still have to eat, you need to survive." A pause, then directed elsewhere. "Jeez Gilda, you really are too soft on that boy."
"No, no, this is," Oryn fumbled, then straightened. "I made a bet with Allen and lost."
Rosa turned to Allen with the particular look that mothers reserve for when they already know the answer. "Really."
Allen held her gaze, his expression caught somewhere between firm and terrified. "Yes," he said, a little too forcefully. "It's true. It's mine and im not sharing."
"Brat, do you need a spanking or what? Learn how to speak to your mother," Rosa scolded, grabbing Allen by the ear and pulling it firmly.
Gilda chuckled.
The mood felt warm. The kind of warm that settles into the shoulders and makes you forget, even briefly, where you are and what you have lost. But sometimes warmth can be a poison to an iced heart.
Drip...
Drip...
Oryn was the first to notice. His eyes drifted to her face and something in his chest went still.
"Mother?"
Rosa looked over. "Gilda."
She only said her name. She didn't ask what was wrong. It wasn't the first time and they both knew it. Instead she let the silence breathe for a moment before asking softly, "Do you want to say something?"
Gilda opened her mouth. Closed it. Then tried again.
"I just." She stopped. Swallowed. "I am afraid."
The words came out smaller than she intended, like something she had been holding at arm's length for a long time and had finally let get too close.
"It has only been two months and I know, for Oryn's sake, I know I have to move on." Her voice caught. "But moving on means accepting that I lost them both."
"I am afraid of forgetting this pain. Of waking up one day and moving forward like nothing happened." She pressed her lips together. "I am scared of."
She exhaled.
"I am scared to feel happy again."
-break-
Oryn sat on a pile of rocks, staring into the red clouded sky. Beneath the bright sun he reminded himself just how absurd his situation was. Not only had he been transmigrated to another world but into the body of a slave, and right now he wasnt even in the human world but the demon world, Goetia.
His eyes were solemn as his thoughts drifted back to what had happened. Rosa told us both to go to Gram for a while. I guess she didn't want me to see mother like that.
Her eyes had cried two rivers, each drop carrying a weight of loss and pain. That was what Oryn felt looking at his mother's face in that moment.
Sigh..
"I should take a look at my status, hope I got at least a two to three percent more xp."
-=— [Oryn Greer] —=-
Heroine : Zadia Serath
Gift : Temporal Breach
Profession : Slave
Level : 5 [0%—[15%]———————100%] XP
Mana Core : White [Mana capacity : 500/500]
Blessings Possessed : 180
Element : Aero
Titles : [The Knight Who Condemns Luck]
Items (2/5) : [Armour of Tyche] , [Blade of Beginning]
-==-
Oryn smiled while he stared at the screen for a moment then dismissed it with a quiet exhale. From eleven to fifteen percent. Better than what he had hoped for.
"Oryn." Allen's voice came soft and careful. "Are you okay?"
Oryn looked over at him. The concern on Allen's face was so unguarded it was almost hard to look at directly. He couldn't help but smile.
Allen was only eleven, about to turn twelve in May. A kid by every measure. But Oryn was a grown man on the inside, and even so, pride had a funny way of making itself known regardless.
He got up from the rock pile and jumped down to Allen's level, flicking him square on the forehead.
"That's big bro Oryn to you. And you're too young to be worrying about me."
Surprised, Allen grabbed his forehead with both hands. "Ugh, why?"
"Come on, let's go find your fa—" Oryn stopped mid sentence.
Up ahead a crowd of humans and dwarves had gathered, tighter than usual, voices dropped low and uneasy. Shoulders were drawn in, eyes darting. A few of the older miners had gone very still in the way people go still when they are trying not to react to something that already has them scared.
Oryn caught a few words drifting over.
"Did you hear, he's coming back for the monthly inspection."
A bead of sweat ran down the side of one man's jaw despite the fact that he hadn't been working. His eyes stayed fixed on the ground.
"The camp's warden." Someone else confirmed, voice barely above a breath. "Two days."
A brief silence fell over the cluster of bodies before the voice finished what it started.
"He's coming in two days."