On the other side.
Renji Barto.
He was one of Noya Eiji's classmate all those years ago, and was also a close friend.
His performance at the final exams had earned him to pass and graduate alongside his friends.
When he graduated, he was then invited by the Warrior Department within the kingdom.
Although disappointed that he wasn't invited by the Shimin Training Department, which almost all of them had dreamt of, he happily accepted the invitation of the Warrior Department.
There, he spent his time with a new team that had a veteran leader.
With his outgoing and hardworking personality, he earned the respect of the swordsmen in his team.
Within just a year, he had become the vice leader of his new team!
Even though he was still a bit naive, his acts of helping others and never giving up, still gave his teammates assurance in their missions.
And so, he spent the years just like that.
Over time, he shed a bit of his nativity and had matured a bit.
But his hot bloodedness and the will to help others still lingers within him.
For the team, there was no need to address such a thing, as Renji would always do whatever it takes to help his comrades when in dire situations, and they had been helped by him quite a few times, although this would sometimes endangere them and/or the mission.
But that was until a few months ago.
Reality was harsh.
Despite being already a master level swordsman and had respectable strength, sometimes power just can't equate to authority!
An incident happened at that time.
He had helped a woman from a drunk young man who wanted to take her.
Despite her refusal, he insisted on taking her and even beated up her father and mother in front of the woman in their own tavern!
Renji was there at that time, cliche as it may sound, he had saved that woman from that rogue of a man.
But.....
At that time he was heroic and garnered respect, he did not notice that no one had dared to help the family nor was he paying attention to them, he wanted to help and so he did!
And that was until the man retaliated.
It turns out he was a son of a viscount, with a familial connections with a count and the Duke of Breeze City.
And so, Renji was harassed everyday after that.
He opposed and fought against them along with his teammates.
His teammates also found the situation very unsettling and was upset for him.
But then, the man used his connections and money to threaten the family of his teammates and had even the wife of their team leader cut off one of her fingers.
Since then, the team of Renji slowly drifted apart.
They felt bad and wanted to help, but unless they have a noble backing them up or an even greater authority than the viscount, the situation would still be continue.
In fact, Renji wanted to ask for help from his best friend, Ignis Newark, but felt shameful to do so.
For Renji, this was a situation where he messed up, so he felt that he should also be the one to clean it up.
And so he was kept being harassed.
He was given stupid missions such as cleaning the public restrooms, as well as taking a night guard duty even when he had just finished a bandit elimination duty in the morning.
Then his payments were cut for various reasons as well.
Sometimes he wouldn't even get his payments saying they ran out of cash for the moment and then would forget about it the next time he tries to ask for it.
He had already reported the situation to his higher ups, but the sudden situation of the kidnapping incident all over the country made it so that all departments were very busy and had no time to intervene in his problems.
Yet, even when the incident was solved, and even his continuous reports, there were still no message that came back.
Renji then found out that, one of his teammates had blocked his reports from reaching the Department.
At that time although furious, Renji asked his teammate, why, that time, his teammate cried at him saying he was sorry, but..it was his family that was being compromised!
Renji gritted his teeth in anger.
He wanted to go back to the capital to directly report, but that would also mean abandoning the current mission, he still had to take mission in the city of Breeze for another 6 months before he could apply to be appointed to another city within the kingdom.
Renji could only spend his time in isolation.
But the family of the woman that he helped had been helping him throughout the whole predicament.
The family had a small tavern, although now with that man's intervention, business became scarce.
As time passed, and as Renji continued to spend time with the family, he gradually fell in love with the woman he had halped.
Fortunately, the feelings were mutual and so Renji began a new chapter in his life where he not only had to do his best to become strong but also to protect his old and new family.
---
Renji looked at the time and new that it was time for his shift to end.
He made his way back to the barracks, where he took off his armor and change his clothes.
He then exited the barracks.
*Swoosh!
He felt the coldness of the wind but with his physique, there was no problem with that.
*Sigh....
Renji sighed to himself and just as he took his first step, he heard a voice up ahead.
"What are you sighing to yourself about Renj??"
Up ahead, his classmate and friend, Eiji was there standing by the road smiling at him.
"Eiji!!!!"
*End Of Chapter.