Evan's Hardships

KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK! 

Evan and Luna were having breakfast when they heard the sound of someone knocking on the door.

"Luna, stay here and wait for me; okay?" said Evan as he patted the head of the white wolf cub and went to check out who had come to their house early morning, well mostly because not a lot of people wanted to even meet him nowadays.

When he opened the door, he saw four tall and muscular men who were wearing village guard uniforms waiting in front of the door.

"Is this the house of Mr Orion Zest?" the leading person holding a bunch of papers asked me as soon as I opened the door.

"Y-yes, is something wrong sir?" Evan asked nervously; the last thing he wanted now was to get in trouble with the village guard and get arrested.

That person did not answer and barged inside the house with his men.

"Why are you coming inside without permission? Hey, stop!" Evan shouted as he tried to stop them from entering but it was futile they were adults who had already begun their cultivation.

"Kid don't make trouble. We are here for investigation. A complaint has been filed for not paying the rent for the past three months. Where is Mr. Orion?" asked the officer as he looked at me for the first time.

"My father is not here right now; he has gone to Tarisk town and is yet to return," Evan answered truthfully.

"Tarisk town? Is that supposed to be a joke? The entire town is in shambles due to the monster raid that happened six months ago. When did your father go to the town?" the officer asked in a stern voice.

"S-six months ago, H-he went to the town with my mom because the winter was coming and my mother has a chronic illness. They have to visit the doctor every year before the winter begins," Evan said in a solemn tone.

Before the leading officer could say something, the person behind him said, "Heh, they have been gone for so long and yet to return, Kid even after knowing what happened to that town you still have the gall to say that they will return? HAHAHA"

Hearing this Evan tensed up and shouted: "MY PARENTS ARE NOT DEAD!"

The leading officer was a bit surprised due to the sudden change in Evan's behavior. He glared at the other officer till he stopped laughing.

Then he turned back to Evan and said, "Look Kid, I don't know about your parents neither do I want to know. I am here to give you a final notice, if you don't pay the past three months' rent then you will have to evict this house."

Immediately Evan went pale as he imagined himself forced to move out of the place that had been his home since his birth.

He immediately grabbed onto his feet and pleaded, "N-no please don't do this, if you do this, I will have nowhere else to go. P-please give me some time; I work at a nearby restaurant so I will be able to pay the rent once my salary arrives."

Looking at such a scene the officer sighed and his expression softened a bit. "One week, that's the most I can stall for. If you are still unable to pay the rent you will evict the house regardless of your wishes. Let's go." He said as he left the house and the other officers followed behind him.

Seeing them leave Evan finally relaxed and stopped acting as he fell on the sofa thinking about what the officer said.

After a few minutes, he returned to the table and started eating breakfast, but his expression was somber.

"Kiyuu!" Luna called him out seeing his expression, she couldn't understand human emotions because she was just a cub who was less than a month old, but she could feel that Evan was very sad compared to when he left.

Evan gave her a helpless smile as he picked her up and placed her on his lap as he stroked her soft fur. "The officer just came asking to pay for the rent. I somehow managed to gain some time with some acting but how will we pay the rent?"

"Even after cutting down every extra expense and working we don't have that much money." Evan continued, "At most, I can pay for one month's rent if we use every single core we have."

"Seems like we have no choice but to do that," Evan said as his face scrunched even by the thought of doing that once again.

Kiyu?

And Luna looked at him in confusion.

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In the afternoon.

Evan and Luna left home, while Evan was carrying a big backpack over his back while carrying Luna in his hands.

They walked through the market and then by the end of the market they entered an alleyway. Then after making sure no one had followed them behind or was in the vicinity.

Evan stepped in front of a shop and knocked on the shutter of a closed shop in a specific rhythm. After waiting for a minute two men came from the nearby shop, and they also knocked on the shutter but with a different rhythm.

Then the shutter quickly opened halfway, and Evan went inside together with Luna. Inside it is similar to that of a fruit vendor shop.

Evan walked through the shop and then after reaching the end of the shop, he used both of his hands to slide the fruit rack sideways.

Once he was done pushing there was a passage behind the rack, Evan and Luna entered through this passage and came out on the other side, there was a small room and one man wearing a wild hare mask was sitting on a table writing something.

"Rat!" called out Evan as he reached near that man.

"It's Rabbit, I have already told you last time and don't act like we are friends." The man with a hare mask said.

"Hey, there's no way you look like a rabbit, rat is the only name that suits you." Said Evan while reciprocating as he sat on the chair.

"Enough of your silly jokes, what are you doing here boy? Don't tell me you are here to accept a job once again. Or did you bring your new pet out to play?" he said as he tried to pet Luna, but she ran and hid behind Evan.

"I need a job with good pay, harvesting type and it better be for a single person" Evan said as he made his demands clear. Rat looked at him and Evan did not back down, after their little staring contest which Rat had surprisingly lost, he decided to allow take another mission.

Rat warned Evan, "If you mess up, there won't be any future missions for you at the scavenger guild, even if you were recommended by the little boss because even he won't be able to save you this time."

Evan nodded in understanding, three months ago when he went on the mission to harvest some herbs from the hunting grounds, he had run into a thunder cheetah cub who was initial knight grade whose mother was fighting another monster.

He thought he had gotten lucky, but he had underestimated the cub's strength, it attacked him and managed to injure him. When he returned, he was in critical condition due to too much blood loss and his school friend who was the son of the branch leader of the guild had used his influence to save him.

Naturally, Evan was saved thanks to that, but his friend was punished for using his authority for selfish reasons and was not allowed to visit the Scavenger Guild until half a year, for someone who is supposed to be taking up the mantle after his father was a huge loss.

Evan had remembered this favor in his heart and promised to return it one day.

Rat brought out a list of missions that fulfilled Evan's conditions perfectly. After looking through all the missions Evan selected two easy missions, which were for collecting some herbs which are used to make medicines.

While looking at the missions he looked for the highest-paying mission that was harvesting Thunder BlueBerries, but he just looked at it for a moment and looked away. That mission was out of his league.

Then he left with Luna in the same way they came in, once they got to the market, they quickly made their way to the village fortifications and crossed it leaving for the nearby forest.

As they travelled, Evan thought of his current life. If possible, Evan did not want to do such a thing, but what other choice did he have?

Evan was just a normal 11-year-old boy.

Ever since his parents went to the town, he had no idea what happened to them, he just waited for their return and did whatever was necessary to survive on his own until they returned.

When they left, they took most of the money for mom's medications and to buy winter supplies, leaving enough money for Evan so that he could pay for one month's rent and groceries since Evan knew how to cook food; by that time, they would surely return home.

And in case some emergencies came up, he could always borrow some money from their good and friendly neighbors.

But everything changed one day when the news about the monster raid in Tarisk town spread throughout the village.

Evan was so shocked he refused to believe this but as days passed, people started talking about the monster raid. Although most of the people had managed to evacuate to bunkers the death toll had already crossed thousand.

Evan's heart was filled with dread and wanted to find out about his parent's condition but how could he do that? They were in a different town where no one was ready to go.

But Evan did not give up he kept visiting the nearby police office to check the status of his missing parent's complaint, but it was futile, even after visiting for a month there was no news about them, even though the town had been reconquered. 

As days passed the amount of money kept on decreasing; after one month of his parent's departure, he had already used all the funds, and when he went to ask his close neighbors, they directly refused to even lend him an initial knight core which was the lowest currency.

That's when Evan learned the cruel lesson of reality, but this was just the beginning. Since there was no charity, he decided to work and earn money but almost no one wanted to hire a kid at work, even though he had enough skills for the job.

Some were even more hateful, they made Evan do the work in the name of testing his skills and when he asked for payment for his labour, he was shooed away but one bastard had crossed even went a step and called the village police officers and almost sent him to jail.

Evan was on the verge of breaking down due to anger, depression and anxiety because even after four whole months had passed there was still no news about his parents. Even the police officers had closed the complaint because there was no news about them even after four months had passed since the monster raid.

This is when Luna, a female white wolf cub hatched from the egg that his parents had bought for him to form a bond and walk on the path of cultivation.

Since then, two months have passed, and Luna has been supporting Evan when he was facing all the problems on his own.

She was the only family member with him right now and he would not allow anyone to harm her as long as they were together.

Evan was still lamenting when he bumped into something squishy, he bounced back and fell on the ground. When Evan looked in front of him a fatty was standing in front of him.

Evan got up quickly and checked if Luna was okay, she was his priority right now.

Evan had just turned back when the fatty grabbed his collar and lifted him in the air.

"Boy, you got some guts. Not only did you bump into me, but instead of apologizing you ignored me completely. Apologize right now!" his spit flew everywhere as he spoke.

Before Evan could even say anything, the Fatty spoke again.

"No No No~" he changed his mind and looked at Evan with a wide grin, "Apologizing is too easy punishment for brats like you. Take out everything valuable on you, and don't try to give me some fucking threats; nobody will know what happened here outside the village Hehe ~" fatty said as he took out a knife and started playing with it.

'Ah, shit! here we go again!'