Now all that remained was one final task.
-Grooow!
His stomach was growling fiercely.
Completely undermining the lie he had told the pastry owner earlier.
"Maybe I should go back for those pastries."
Reaching into his waistcoat pocket.
He pulled out one of the three sliver Valors Angela had gifted him.
Fully prepared prepared to exchange it for some donuts.
Taylor flipped the heavy sliver piece idly in the air, watching it spin in the sunlight.
-Click!
His finger slipped.
The coin bounced off the cobblestone and fell straight into a rusted metal cup rusting on the ground.
Just as he was bout to pick it up.
"Why, thank you young man."
An weathered old man dressed in tattered rags.
Said, in a low raspy voice.
He looked up, his weary eyes looking on to him.
*Damn it!*
He screamed internally.
His chest tightening In immediate frustration.
*My frickin money!*
"That… is… haaa!"
He finally sighed in defeat.
Letting his shoulders drop.
"Your welcome."
As he turned on his heel, ready to walk away and nurse his empty stomach.
The old man suddenly spoke.
"Wait there, young man. Don't leave so soon. As thanks for your generosity. Would you like something in return?"
Taylor paused attempting to look as comfortable and nonchalant as humanly possible.
His rational mind screamed at him to brush him off and keep moving.
He didn't have time this.
But he opened his mouth to dismiss him.
He found, he just couldn't bring himself to do it.
"Urgh…"
He sighed again in silent defeat.
*I just can't win with this old man.*
"Uhmm… well…"
He trailed off.
After thinking hard he just couldn't dismiss him.
The man's persistence reminded him of his grandfather.
His experssion vanished, replaced by a dead serious gravity.
"I desire power."
The old man raised a thick, old gray brow.
"Ah, a tale as old as time itself."
The man said in a old tired voice.
"Are you sure?"
"Yes."
He answered immediately, without a shred hesitation.
"Would I be prying if I asked you why."
The man questioned.
Strocking his gray beard.
At first Taylor remained dead silent.
But something unexplainable compelled him to speak.
*Plus, looking at him, who was he going to tell anyway?*
"There are people I want to kill… with my own two hands."
He said.
His right hand tightening into a fist so hard his knuckles turned white.
The old man suddenly chuckled, the tension breaking.
"You certainly don't look like it, but you act entirely like an adult. You know that?"
The man's words hit him like a splash of cold water.
He snapped out.
A wave of panic washing over him.
*I'm revealing to much… I need to get out of here right now.*
"I'm sorry for taking up your time, Mr—"
"It might be possible that you already possess the power you seek."
The man interrupted.
Catching him off gaurd.
"Time is all you need."
"Time is the only thing I don't have!"
I interjected sharply.
The man chuckled again with a genuine smile.
"Hush now… Although humans have fleeting lives, time is always enough… If that time is truly what you lack, then..."
Reaching for his ragged back, the man pulled something from the shadows of his coat.
The man took out a small, pristine glass vial filled with a strange liquid.
"Take this..."
Taylor extended a trembling hand.
Hesitating for a second as his mind race.
*Could this be true? A random encounter in an alleyway?*
Looking back at the strange fluid.
Doubt creeped in.
*It would be rude not to take it.*
He took it, sleeping it carefully into his pocket.
*What's this?*
Reaching into his old habits of ultimate respect.
He lowered his upper body in a strict, formal 90 degrees angle.
"Thanks."
The old man was taken aback for fraction of a second, entirely unprepared for such an intense display of manners for toddler.
"You don't have to do that… your coin was more than enough."
As he straightened up.
"But, be careful that power you so desperately seek may just be bring you down in the future."
This wasn't an advise nor a kind guidance.
It was a warning.
He felt jingly sensation in his chest.
The slime was jingling frantically.
*Huh?*
Taylor turned his back, eager to put distance between himself and the strange encounter.
The old man's voice echoed one last time.
"Be careful."
"Ah… thanks, I will."
Unbeknownst to Taylor.
The old man wasn't looking at his eyes.
His expression was serious.
Breaking into a fast pace, he hurried away from the alley, his mind completely consumed by the final instruction on the list.
He checked on the slime.
"You okay?"
The slime gestured a nod.
Before he could think more.
-Groow!
His stomach growled again.
***
A/N:
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