Ten years passed. Morning. "Hihiie," a horse stopped in front of the tower. "Bruk," a young woman wearing full knight's armor and carrying a sword at her waist jumped down from the horse. She tossed her long, wavy blonde hair. Her blue eyes stared intently at the tower. She looked up and saw white smoke coming from the top. However, before she could step forward, another horse suddenly stopped behind her, and its rider immediately jumped down to approach the girl.
"Wait, Lady Sabrina, are you sure you want to go in?" asked a man dressed like a butler.
"Yes... I want to confirm something. Don't stop me, Pierre," Sabrina replied.
Sabrina walked closer to the door while Pierre, the butler, tried to stop her. When she reached the door, Sabrina paused, took a deep breath, and exhaled. Her hand went up to knock on the door, but "kreeek," the door opened. Zane, who was about to go out, opened the door from the inside.
"Oh... a visitor," Zane said.
Sabrina, standing directly in front of Zane, froze without saying anything. Her mouth hung open because she saw a handsome young man with green eyes and short, messy black hair, probably around her age, wearing neat noble-like clothes. Seeing Sabrina silent, Zane waved his palm in front of her face and brought his face closer to hers.
"Um... who are you?" Zane asked.
"Huh? Um... ah... um... h-hello, my name is Sabrina von Grandoff. I am the daughter of the city lord of Heinz. Who are you?" Sabrina asked, startled.
"Ah... Lady Sabrina. My name is Zane Howards, son of Kane Howards. Just call me Zane," Zane replied casually.
Then Zane took Sabrina's hand, bowed, and kissed it. Of course, this made Sabrina, who looked like a knight, extremely embarrassed. Her face suddenly turned red, and she looked away, although she allowed Zane to kiss her hand. After that,
"What brings you here, Lady Sabrina?" Zane asked.
"Th-this tower... it's supposed to be empty, isn't it? Ten years ago, someone was living here... I could see it from my room... I also asked the townspeople, especially the merchants, if there was a young noble who liked to buy magic crystals and sell farm produce and then return to this tower. The residents also said that you cure their illnesses without payment. You are not registered in the city's population records, and as the daughter of the city lord, I have the right to ask," Sabrina replied, her words jumbled.
"Ah... okay, well, what should I do? My apologies, I've been living here without reporting to the authorities," Zane replied, bowing and relaxed.
"Um... may I come inside? Were you about to go out?" Sabrina asked.
"Please, come in," Zane replied, stepping aside and opening the door for her.
Once inside, Sabrina and Pierre were immediately surprised because the air inside was very cool, and a cold breeze hit their faces. Sabrina looked to see where the air was coming from. It turned out there was a wooden device attached to the wall, rectangular, with a slotted bottom that blew cold air. "Oh, sorry, is it cold?" Zane picked up a rectangular remote made of metal with only one button in the center and an antenna on top. He pointed the remote at the wooden box and "plip," the fan blades in front of the slot folded, closing the opening. Sabrina was amazed. She immediately turned to look at Zane.
"What artifact is that?" Sabrina asked, pointing to the box on the wall.
"Oh, that's called an air conditioner, or AC for short. Its function is to cool or warm a room. I made it with whatever materials I had. The crystals used are a combined blue and green crystal, and another separate green crystal to make the air flow," Zane explained.
"I have never seen an artifact like this. Where did you get it? Are you an artifact craftsman?" Sabrina asked, examining the AC.
"Oh, I made it myself. But I'm not an artifact craftsman. I just tried things out," Zane replied.
"Huh... tried things out?" Sabrina asked, confused, sitting down in a chair with Pierre standing next to her.
"That's right... just tried things out," Zane replied, sitting across from Sabrina.
Zane looked at Sabrina, who was still looking around the clean, bright room, full of strange artifacts like a handwashing station complete with a faucet embedded with a blue crystal, a moving picture hanging on the wall that looked like a simple moving film (TV), and a decorative lamp hanging from the ceiling. Sabrina realized she was now in a strange place. Then she looked at Zane, who was smiling and sitting relaxed in his chair.
"The residents often see you walking around the market to buy magic crystals and sell farm produce. You also occasionally cure their illnesses. Is that true?" Sabrina asked.
"That is true, Milady. Come with me," Zane said, standing up.
Then Zane invited Sabrina and Pierre out to the tower's backyard. When Sabrina saw the backyard, her eyes widened because the forest that should have been behind the tower and swallowing it whole had completely changed into a field of wheat, a field of corn, an apple orchard, a vineyard, and a flower garden on the right side. Everything was separated by a wooden fence fitted with staff-like devices at each post to create a barrier protecting the entire field from wild animals and wandering monsters from the forest.
"Wow... all this... did you do it yourself?" Sabrina asked, shocked.
"That's right. I enjoy gardening and farming (That's why I wanted to buy a farm and ranch in my past life after I had enough money, too bad a zombie plague struck Earth)," Zane replied.
Sabrina started walking among the wheat and corn fields, then she also saw the vineyard next to the wheat field. Zane, accompanying her, picked a green grape directly from the vine and offered it to Sabrina. Sabrina, of course, took it and ate it, though Pierre looked worried. Then they walked under the apple trees in the back. Zane jumped high, grabbed an apple from the tree, and gave it to Sabrina when he landed. Sabrina was very shocked to see Zane jump so high and land smoothly on the ground without any effort.
"You... you can do that?" Sabrina asked.
"Ah... sorry if I startled you, Milady. Yes, I can do things like that," Zane replied politely.
"A-alright," Sabrina replied, accepting the apple with both hands.
Sabrina could see the apple in her hands looked fresh and red, making it very tempting. Then she looked back at Zane, the mysterious young man who was beginning to pique her interest. Sabrina stared at Zane without blinking while eating her apple, but suddenly, she drew the sword at her waist and cut her arm, which startled Zane slightly.
"Milady, what are you doing?" Pierre cried out in shock.
"Are you alright, Milady?" Zane asked, grabbing Sabrina's arm with a worried expression.
"Try to heal me," Sabrina replied, smiling.
Zane pulled Sabrina's arm. He rolled up Sabrina's shirt sleeve and cleaned the wound with his handkerchief, then placed his palm over Sabrina's arm.
"Sorry, this will sting a bit," Zane replied.
A green electric current began to flow from Zane's arm to his palm, then the current struck the wound on Sabrina's arm. "Sssht," Sabrina winced in pain as her arm was zapped by the electric current, but suddenly her eyes widened because the green electric current stopped the bleeding and appeared to stitch her cut back together. After the wound healed without a trace, leaving only blood residue, Zane wiped Sabrina's arm once more to clean it, then he released Sabrina's arm, who looked at her own arm with surprise and confusion.
"So... you are a healer?" Sabrina asked, examining her arm.
"Something like that. I prefer to use my power to heal others rather than for violence (In my old life, I was a hitman, so I don't want to take anyone's life in this second chance. Enough is enough)," Zane replied, folding his handkerchief again.
Zane looked at Pierre, who was wiping his sweaty face with his handkerchief and looked relieved. Then Pierre looked at Zane, immediately bowing as if to say thank you for indulging the pampered noble girl in front of him. Zane returned the bow to Pierre, accompanied by a friendly smile. After that, he turned back to look at Sabrina.
"Come, Milady, let's go back inside," Zane invited.
"Very well, Master Zane," Sabrina replied respectfully.
"Huh... Master Zane?" Zane wondered.