Following Gona's instruction — Marc, Pearl and Esmeralda found themselves at a residential area, walking along a stone path while their sides were rows of houses and houses, each with a fairly similar wooden design, having a front yard for planting or decorating.
"There." Gona simply said, pointing towards a house to their left.
They knew right off the bat that this was not some ordinary household; even Esmeralda was tensed up and climbed on top of Marc's shoulder piece with her guard up.
The house was strange, instead of a window looking out the front like normal, the windows were shattered and blocked off by wooden planks, the front yard was sad, it was empty with nothing but dirt and stone, barely even able to walk on without shoes to protect. The whole house was not scary or filthy in any way, it just simply stood out like that.
With Esmeralda on his shoulder, Pearl behind adjusting his glasses. Marc approached the door and knuckled the door twice, immediately right afterwards, a loud explosion went off from inside out! With no way to foresee or react in time, the whole group was sent backwards with the door itself.
"Ambush! Marc, give her to me!" Pearl with his back on the floor immediately reached out to Esmeralda, channeling his magical staff on the other hand.
Marc on the other hand, held tight onto Esmeralda, covering her eyes from the dust that flew and stood his ground even after being blasted. The leader of the team did not have his sword here and was about to throw Esmeralda to Pearl for his protection, it was when he noticed Gona was standing there, out of the explosion radius and unfazed like nothing happened, and there were no attackers present.
Pearl noticed this strange occurance too and stood up to look around; there were civilians around who were more concerned by their reaction than the actual scene.
"Dad, visitors."
The young girl crossed her arms and stood outside the fence, not batting an eye to anyone; not Marc, Pearl, Esmeralda or even whoever was inside she called dad.
"Ouf, I made myself a fool again aren't I?"
Stepping out was a very, really thin and malnourished looking yet tall man, he wore simple peasant leather clothing, painted full white which stood out the most for the eyes. He walked towards the team to firmly greet them.
"My name is Alard, very nice to meet you adventurers."
It was when Marc noticed his eyes were shallow, there was nothing there but empty darkness. Marc thought he was hallucinating or something, because the sight of this man was so unreal, he decided to look over to Esmeralda, who was having the same expression, and decided to be normal, not to say anything about it.
"Kek! Reik!"
Esmeralda however, had a different plan as she pointed at Alard, her words were to be translated as "Holy moly! Have you looked at your eyes man?"
"Alard, hello." Pearl got up and stood near Marc, deliberately covering Esmeralda up as the kid wouldn't stop getting fascinated by the sight of a stranger with no visible eyes.
"We are the Freedom Group, we're here for the concerns of your daughter, Gona? I am Pearl Magmal, this is our leader, Marc and she's Veldrielynth."
"Oh… Gona, my dear." Alard walked over to his daughter and shook his head, "I've heard you've been getting in fights again?"
The girl crossed her arms and did not look at Alard, she walked right pass, even avoided her father to come inside.
"Ke…" Esmeralda looked at Gona with a tint of sympathy; she snuck herself near Marc, wondering how lucky she was to be born with a nice mom like him.
"She tried to run away, do you have any ideas why?" Pearl crossed his arms and asked away, expecting half the answer to be obvious already.
Alard followed his eyes with every step Gona took, but soon lost her from this view and let out a heavy breath yet small smile.
"You would not want to be seen talking with me here, let's head inside. I'm sure we could use my table."
Alard indirectly answered Pearl's question before leading the team inside his home, having to bend himself down to fit into the door.
Marc was first to follow, but the very same moment the young man stepped foot past the door, he sensed something was extremely wrong and immediately retreated, to walk backwards a step or two, surprising the little dragon on his shoulder to also react and shriek.
"...?" Pearl stared at Alard, then frowned and looked at Marc, tapping on his other shoulder and not entering yet.
"Excuse me sir, may I be informed of your occupation? Gona said you are extremely busy."
Alard, who showed no concern for Marc's reaction, or the fact that they're staying outside. The man simply picked up a couple of arrows with darkened tips, he carefully inspected them top to bottom with a smile.
"I once was a blacksmith."
Marc knew exactly why his instincts were against stepping foot inside that building; Alard was a blacksmith, it appeared to them that he still was one, but only he was smithing cursed items.
…
Getting the courage to help the possibly mistreated girl, Marc shook himself awake and head inside, sitting down at a dusty table in the middle of the large room; surrounding him, Pearl and Esmeralda were multiple weapons of all shapes and sizes, all seems up to standards of durability and sharpness of gears, yet there was nothing that isn't cursed.
It was an eerie feeling, having only the worst kind of weapons and equipment to surround you, whispering your deepest secret, and a tall, malnourished yet calm man with no eyes cherishing his creations like gems.
He picked up a normal looking iron sword, similar to those made by other blacksmiths, yet a bit fancier below the blade and definitely an uncomfortable feeling to be near it.
"Magnificent, are they not? Deep ocean's iron hilts, royal round patterned guard, and a blade made and sharpened to perfection. These babies enjoyed themselves a good night feast, only delivering the best to your… 'acquaintances' an opening with no way of closing."
"Over here…" He picked up another sword in his hand, slightly squinting to admire every detail. "Orc's skin for handle, blade bathe in literal tears, I could talk about you dears for days… Ouf, my bad, where are my manners?"
"To answer your question from before," Alard put down his swords into an, also cursed, stand along some others. "I knew my dear, Gona had changed ever since her mom was gone. All this fool was trying to do is to bring his beloved wife back, so we could be one happy family again…"
"Keik…" Esmeralda, silently squeaked in nervousness, she crawled into Pearl's cloak to hide herself, only peaking those dragons eyes of her out.
"But sir." Marc clasped his hands together on the table, displaying a concerned look. "This is no way to do it… You can't just simply bring back someone in any way with these unholy creations."
"LIES!" Alard widened his… darkness and frowned, slamming his hands on the table.