So, it was then, in the Crocus Garden and underneath the large tree, where King sat asleep soundly with his arms crossed in front of his chest, his back leaned against the trunk of the tree. The cool breeze blew across the city of Crocus, soothing everyone from the summer heat while the children ran around in the sand in a far distance in the playgrounds. It was a rather quiet afternoon, with not many people in the gardens, apart from old people having a walk around the area and children playing in the sand while their parents were off at work.

”Urgh…”

King groaned, awoke by the sound of the rustling leaves nearby and when he fluttered his eyes open, he would see dried leaves on his lap that had fallen from the tree above. He had chosen the perfect place to hide away from the sun, which was to take shelter in the shade of the tree. He could hear the howling of the wind and the soft chattering of people talking in a distance but he couldn’t make out the words, not that he even bothered to. When he stretched out his arms after receiving a good long nap, a piece of crumpled up paper fell onto his lap.

The paper that caught his eye a few hours prior was a job written with precision and grace, as if the write spent a good ounce of their time to outline but a simple request, which was to find the lost sword of this young man called Armin. Perhaps, by chance, he acted carelessly on a whim one very cold night, having grabbed the job slip and found it later, in his pocket as it was matted with the scent of cheap sake. King recalled himself meeting the young boy a few days ago but he had been slacking off so much recently, that he had not even bothered to do any quests.

It was too good to be pure coincidence, seeing how he was in the Crocus Gardens and job that slipped out of his pocket stated the request-taker to search the job in the gardens. King assumed it was luck, and that someone probably just wanted him to get money and thus, he decided to accomplish this quest and quickly moved on from this. Being someone who likes to spend money, he also like being greedy with money as well, so as long he could get easy money from anywhere, King would be up for the job without any hesitation. He pushed himself off the ground, blades of grass prodding at his skin and dusted off the dry leaves off her body and head once he stood up.

The boy must be pretty careless to lose a large sword in a garden, he thought. King was reluctant to walk around the gardens, especially in this heat but he quickly wanted to move on with quest and perhaps, even take another one now that a surge of inspiration was flowing through his body, somehow. Besides, he would like to get his hand on the nice juicy rewards afterwards to spend his good times drinking and chilling with some beautiful girl.

King decided to wander the gardens to search for the sword and it appeared to be cleverly lost. Even if the boy named, Armin Bartholomew, has misplaced his sword, it would be lying on the grass somewhere, not at a place where it can’t be found and it was possible that the sword was stolen by someone else to get some easy money. As he walked past the gardens, he received stares from a couple of people, a mix of both welcoming and unwelcoming sentiments, both as an unfamiliar face and as a man with a matted piece of cloth for a hood.

His face was a new and foreign one and people whispered among themselves as just glanced around his surroundings. But, they did not stir from fear, rather, people liked to stare at odd, shiny things from afar, and he was no different. The man did not want to acknowledge whatever they found interesting on his feature, be it his clothes or his attractive face and he simply busied himself with his routine of searching for the sword. In fact, it was a common occurrence of him receiving stares from the townsfolk all the time, since he had begun travelling and moved to Fiore.

”You’re quite a lovely catch, aren’t you?” The old woman sat nearby said, her withering smile greeted him when King turned around to face her.

King offered the old woman a quick glance, shoulders falling as his lips dug a frown into his jaw. ”I’m not sure what you mean. From where I come from, I’m just your average neighbourhood boy.” He tugged the hood over his head and proceeded onwards after bidding the elderly farewell with a friendly smile.

It has been hours and King has yet to find even hints to search the sword and the Crocus gardens are quite large for him to go around the entire area to find the weapon. A glisten of light caught his attention from the corner of her eyes and swiftly, he turned towards the direction. There he saw a small dog with the sword that he had been searching the entire time in its mouth while the dog continued to gaze at him. King has always been a lover of pets, but he has never gotten one before due to the strict rules of his household.

King was aware that pets would not harm anyone if they do not sense any kind of danger. Approaching towards the dog carefully, he sat down on the grass a couple feet away from the dog so that the animal would not feel scared of his presence. ”Come here, boy.” He called out softly, his hand reaching out slowly and the dog would succumbed into his actions. It was hesitant at first but when his fingers brushed across the dog’s fur, the anime whimpered in content and snuggled up his hand before dropping the sword from its mouth. King planted a small kiss on the dog’s head and seeing how it did not have its owner with the pet, he assumed that her dog got lost in the gardens and decided to help the dog search for his owner before he returned the sword back to Armin.