After weeks of meadows, forests, hills, and mountains, Egbert eventually reached the town of Mercy. A white marble statue of a beautiful princess stood tall before the gate leading into the city. The statue looked ahead of her, hands raising to catch a landing dove. The sculpture's texture felt smooth and new, yet it was first built several centuries ago.

On walking towards the gates, he noticed that the city of Mercy was quite different from the mining city of Hane he came from. Instead of the factories and sparkling palaces of the elites, the whole city was of houses painted in white and blue without those high-rises pointing into the sky.

When he was about to enter the town, guards walked out from behind the high, stony walls and blocked his way. On each of their collars was a small round badge of a dove.

“Elites,” Egbert groaned.

“Sire, why am I not allowed?” Egbert demanded.

“Why am I not allowed?” a guard mimicked teasingly. The guard made a face and sneered, "Do you know who lives inside? The elites! Look at you. Dirty clothes with patches, filthy face, unshaved mustache and beard. What are you? Oh, yes, you're a beggar. Sorry. Here you go, then. I will give you mercy in the name of Mercy."

The guard reached out into his pocket, took out a round bronze coin, and threw the coin onto the ground. Laughing out loud hard, the guards walked back behind the walls. The laughing lingered in the air for some time before finally dying away.

“Bad news! Bad news…”

From behind him, another ragged man just like him ran toward the guards, yelling words.

Egbert was going to tell him it was useless. Before he knew it, the guards quickly appeared from behind the walls and listened carefully to him. All of them stood straight and looked at the man seriously. Egbert looked closely at the man to see what was different about him from himself. The man had a head full of white, messy, long hair. His mustache floated in the air as a blow of wind passed. Patches were everywhere, up and down his clothes. The man was the same as Egbert, like any other commoner, yet…

“The farmers of Bright are still refusing to work, and the boss asked for higher wages. If it goes on like this, the crops will die. It will be a huge loss to Mercy. And the citizens of Hope are gathering secretly. They are talking about having a revolution. They want to take the city of Mercy first. Things are worsening. Something had to be prepared, or it would be another period of dark ages!"

The guards nodded thoughtfully and took out their wallets to pay the man a large wad of money. The man happily received the wad with both hands and disappeared.

“Traitor!” murmured Egbert as he finally collapsed, exhausted.

Egbert picked up the bronze coin from the ground and stared at it carefully. It was rusted, and the surface was rough. The tarnished coin had lost its shining reflected lights just like the city of Mercy had lost its mercy and its purpose of tolerance. Inequality, too, had slowly crept into Mercy, making it rot. All those stories of Mercy were only the wrappers outside the rotten fruit.

He had been through worse.

The horning sound grew louder and louder. The crowd waiting to get outside the port city, Karvolt, looked back and spotted a wagon pulled by four horses charging at them in the distance. There was no stopping. The horses were accelerating, and it happened as Egbert had feared. The wagon crashed over the screaming crowd, jumped over the railings blocking the way out, and disappeared into the woods. In panic, Egbert got aside just in time, but the poor man beside him was not lucky enough. He was then lying painfully on the ground, moaning. His body and arms were twisted at an impossible angle, and he was spitting blood onto the ground. Egbert was about to duck down to help the man when the stout elite jumped down from the railings onto the man and walked away into the distance. The poor man spat another mouthful of blood before closing his eyes.

It was chilling cold when Egbert woke up, his back aching from sleep on the hard ground. The sun was rising up above the horizon. In front of him, in the distance, was the sea. It glittered under the saturated sunrise like scattered crystals.

The words of that commoner lingered and swirled in his brain. The seed of rebelling had been planted. People have realized what a poor situation they are in. He will find allies on the continent! Together, they will end the rule of the elites and start a new age for Verdia.

He opened the suitcase and took out the rockflower pot. A gentle breeze brushed across his cheeks, foundling his burnt skin. In the breeze, the rockflower swayed back and forth. Egbert had heard that the rockflower was the most vigorous plant on Verdia, for it could survive any harsh environment, from the hypoxia and icy mountain tops of the Kroll Mountains beside Hane to the arid deserts in the north. They might encounter gales and storms, yet they always survive and stand firmly against those oppressing them.

Hope was the place to start his journey, thought Egbert, as he looked at the rising sun.

It was nearly noon when Egbert eventually arrived at the city of Hope on the opposite shoreside of the sea. What he saw amazed him. Like Mercy, Hope also had a sculpture of a princess standing in front of the walls, yet it was broken. Cracks were all over the sculpture, and the original surface of it turned blackish. Moreover, the face of the sculpture was blurry. It was supposed to be pointing forward from the remnants of the sculpture, but the arm was lost, leaving only the shoulder. Small pieces of white marble stones were all over the ground.

Egbert was even more surprised to notice that the outer walls of Hope were decaying. Vines and moss grew wildly on the gaps between the stones and enclosed the city. Through the gates, the inside of the town was filled with smoke and dust. In the misty air were the collapsed and caved-in houses. People were chasing each other, swearing and cursing. It was entire chaos.

He walked toward the dilapidated walls, hoping that at least he could give a speech to the citizens. Carefully stepping across the gate of the walls, he signed with relief when he finally got inside. The air was of acid and rotten odor like he had been breathing in the mines of the Turner's Caves for ages. Piled with gravel and broken wood boards, the muddy ground was bumpy and rough. A man ran swiftly in front of him, nearly crashed into him, and disappeared into the narrow alley.

A square of open lands appeared as Egbert walked out from an alley. In the middle of the square was a crumbled wooden temple with its roof missing. The outer layer of the temple was decaying, and much of the wood had fallen out, leaving the inside part of the temple visible. A rusted iron statue of a god-like person stood within. Iron pieces had fallen off its face, leaving dark holes in the place where its right eye was supposed to be. The statue held a long sword up with both hands in front of it. Though the sculpture was rough, with rust covering it, the complex feelings of concern and profound disappointment in its eyes were still visible.

This was the perfect place for the speech.

Egbert put down the suitcase and took out the script he had written before setting off. The paper was wrinkled, and the words were faded, yet the words were carved deep in his mind.

“Dear citizens of Hope,

“I stand before you today not as a figure of power or privilege but as one of you—a commoner from Hane, just like many of you gathered here. I seek your support, not for myself, but for a cause that affects us all: the fight against inequality in our beloved land of Verdia.”

People started gathering around the small square of land.

“Have you, like me, felt the weight of oppression bearing down upon you from the elites, those few who hold affinities and wield the mysterious power of the Charge? Have you felt the sting of exclusion, denied entry to other cities simply because you lacked this gift? Have you toiled endlessly, hoping for a chance at education and advancement, only to be turned away because you were not born with affinities?”

People yelled in agreement. Their faces shone with light, the light of rebelling.

“What of our labor, sweat, and toil sustains this land? We are the backbone of Verdia, yet we scrape by on meager earnings. At the same time, the elites luxuriate in their palaces, untouched by the hardships we endure. It is a cruel injustice born of centuries of inequality.

“Yes, those with affinities indeed possess a unique talent, but ask yourselves: do they truly put it to good use? Do they use their power to uplift all of Verdia, or do they hoard it for their own gain, leaving us to suffer in their shadow?

“We can no longer stand idly by and accept this state of affairs. We have endured hardships since the darkest days of our history—the Revival Ages, the Dark Decennium, the Primitive Ages—and yet, we have persisted. But persistence is not enough. We must rise up and demand change.

“Together, we have the power to forge a new Verdia—a Verdia where our worth is recognized, where every citizen receives their due. But I cannot do this alone. I need you to stand beside me and lend your voices to this cause.

“Yes, I may falter, for I am only one person. But united, we are unstoppable. Together, we can build a future where equality reigns, where the divisions of the past are erased, and every citizen can genuinely thrive.

“So, I implore you, my fellow commoners of Hope: join me in this fight. Together, let us build a new Verdia for ourselves and generations. Thank you.”

Egbert bowed gracefully. Though he was still in his mining overall, he felt himself a brave warrior with a sword in hand. He was the fuse of the bomb that eliminated the current inequality. Those curious faces looked at Egbert, this courageous young man from the north mining town of Hane.

People gathered around him, hoping to share their ideas. From their firm eyes, Egbert knew that he had succeeded.

Minutes later, a few men in uniform riding a wagon pulled by horses, with small round badges and the image of a star on their chests, squeezed through the crowd and arrested Egbert. However hard the crowds tried to hinder the wagon from leaving, the elites still managed to drive through the crowd with the help of affinities.

Egbert looked back through the window. People shouted furiously at the distancing wagon, "Build a new Verdia!"

"Against inequality, one is weak. Yet, united, all shall be unstoppable." Egbert thought.

A man in a dark brown hood picked up the suitcase and opened it. The pot of flowers attracted his eyes. A green unripe berry stood on the flower's stamen with four rock-colored petals. Soon, it would ripen.