Lonely and penniless.

Destitute and adrift in a world that once bowed to him, but had now turned its back on him.

Oh, how the mightily rich had fallen!

It wasn’t too long ago that Leonard had Poki in the palm of his hand, doing whatever he wanted and splashing money everywhere in total glee. Now here he was, out of the city and trying to find a place to survive in the neighbouring towns.

He just couldn’t understand how Poki had become so hostile to him a few days after he suddenly lost all his money. It was as if everyone in the city secretly despised him and was just waiting for him to lose his riches, so they could show him what they really thought of him.

In almost two years of running the rule over the party scene in Poki, he had made a couple of acquaintances, and after getting kicked out of Elite Star and rejected by his boys, harboured a faint flicker of hope that one of them would show him kindness and take him in.

Not a single person even showed an iota of sympathy for him.

He was still reeling in shock from the manner in which virtually every acquaintance swiftly told him they could not help him, and dismissed him without a second thought. From the guys at Millennium to the bosses at Obsidian and The Elysium; nobody was interested in helping this version of Leonard. The version of Leonard, swimming in bundles of kinan notes, was the one they had time for, not this overnight beggar.

Two days of these straight rejections from all these folks was a major sting, but nothing hurt as much as what had happened when he dejectedly left The Elysium.

He walked out the gate, only to find Samuel’s Defender ride in. The windows rolled down, and the trio, along with his former escorts whistled and laughed at him.

“Next time, you’ll use your brains before you spend money, you idiot!” Sirus yelled at him from the back seat.

“Tell me about it!” Abida agreed loudly. “Such a brainless spender. Dumbass!”

Leonard silently walked away, tears in his eyes as they all laughed and mocked him.

To think that these were the ones who once tagged along on his numerous spending sprees, made all the demands and rained all sorts of adulations on him. Now they were insulting him.

As he trudged out of the main center of Poki, those memories as fresh as ever in his mind, he shook his head and muttered to himself.

“I can’t believe I was feeding the enemy all along.”

***

On the outskirts of the fanciful city center of Poki lay a simple, dusty town by name Pimatta. It was vastly different to the modern city. With untarred roads and simple houses, this was quite the opposite of Poki. Quite an irony that it was located so close to its polar opposite.

Leonard walked along the street, marvelling at the sights before him.

No cars present, only tricycles. Nothing but ordinary-looking bungalows in sight. A simple-looking, run-down bakery was also in sight. On the left side of all these buildings was a field that looked pretty vast.

And quite dirty.

Leonard crossed over to the other side of the road to briefly check on the field, out of sheer curiosity. On the walls surrounding the field, he saw a small sign. As he walked closer to see what it read, he noticed the fields had some stalls scattered around. As well as a few pigs moving about.

His attention from that to the sign.

“Pleasant Pig Ranch,” he read out loud. “Hmmm, no surprise there, with the pigs I just saw…”

“HEY! WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE?”

The harsh yell frightened Leonard out of his skin. He literally yelped in alarm before turning in the direction of that shout. He saw an elderly man, possibly in his sixties, clad in overalls and a farm hat, with a white beard and the grumpiest expression he had seen, standing a few metres away from the wall.

“Uh,I, I, I’m sorry, good afternoon, sir…”

“What do you want, young man?”

Leonard stuttered. “Umm… I-I… I’m just passing by, while trying to find a place to stay, and I-“

“Ain’t no accommodation around here for you spoilt Poki kids. Get outta here! You and your fancy sky high buildings and all. Rubbish!”

For a man working with a farm called Pleasant, this man sure was the opposite. And it was clear he had some beef with Poki folks.

Leonard stood frozen as the old man turned his back, muttering to himself angrily. Whatever issue he had with Poki, it sure had to be serious, with that reaction.

Or maybe if he told him he was from Agena, he’d get a reaction…

“But Sir, I’m not from Poki! I’m from Agena!” he called.

The old man turned. “You’re lying!” he snarled.

Leonard shook his head. “I’m not. I’m from Agena. I was born and bred there. Agenaian to the bone. Grisway lad through and through. I simply passed by Poki to come here to find a place to stay…”

The old man, his facial expression softening as he heard the Grisway term come from Leonard’s mouth, moved to him gently. “But why are you here? Why did you leave Agena?” he asked gruffly.

Leonard shrugged helplessly. “It’s… it’s a long story, sir. I can tell you eventually, but please, I just need to know if there’s a place I can stay…”

The old man still had quite a stern expression on his face as he shook his head. “You’re out of luck here, young man. As far as accommodation and jobs go, there’s none here. None at all. Sorry, I dunno how you’re gonna survive over here, but… there’s no space for you.”

Leonard sighed as the man turned to walk away. This was not good to hear.

To have walked a whole two hours nonstop just to get this piece of information about Pimatta? Getting a new place to settle was going to be harder than he thought…

“But then again…”

Leonard looked up at the man, who had stopped in his tracks.

“… I do need a helping hand around here. And there’s a barn right over there, with space for a bed at the very least. So maybe… maybe there’s some space for you over here after all.”

Leonard’s face lighted up.

Oh, what joyous news to his ears!

Sure, sleeping in a barn and working as a watcher of pigs was nowhere near the ideal way to spend his life. But he had just seen his life of luxury stripped before his eyes. Any chance to get his life back in order was appreciated.

“Oh, thank you so much, sir!”

“My name’s Caaran. Caaran Anderton.”

“Yes, sir, thank you, Mr. Anderton. My name is Leonard, and I’m so, so grateful.”

***

Lennart sighed and shook his head, standing at the entrance of the kitchen as he watched his father stand at the window of the living room and stare outside.

He knew why he stood there.

The old man was still hoping his younger son would return.

“I don’t understand this man, to be honest. I really don’t,” he muttered to himself.

Over two years had passed since Leonard happily skipped out of Hollyland Manor to live the life of foolishness he had desired to live. No contact had been made since then. The young man had discarded his phone number a long time ago, making it abundantly clear that his family was not a part of this new life of his.

As far as Lennart was concerned, his hare-brained little brother had made his desires clear: he wanted to waste his life on his stupid frivolities and did not want anything to do with his family. If the guy was living as if they were dead, why was the old man still bothering himself over him?

He had told him a number of times to forget about Leonard and accept that the boy had chosen his path. It was obvious, however, that Johannes was not finding it easy to do such.

He shook his head and walked back into the kitchen. “Well, someday he’ll finally accept it. That that foolish son of his is never coming back. He did all he could, but honestly, that brother of mine is just selfish to the bone, and wherever he is, he’s never coming back. Sad, but it is what it is. He’ll just to have accept that Leonard is gone. Forever.”

Well, Lennart hasn’t wasted time discarding his brother aside. And how is Leonard gonna fare in a pig farm?