Chapter 5

Break apart.

It's already been a year since that day. I am already three. When I woke up and broke the cup Zenith handed to me was…surprising. Paul said maybe it had something to do with my demon blood. Since that day, I can't use the ordinary cutlery that broke when I usually hold them. What I mean by normal is metal cutlery… Paul trained me to control my strength, but it was not going anywhere.

I'm afraid… I feel like that If I hug others too hard, they will break…

The cutlery I use right now is made by earth magic from Talhand. It is harder than normal metal. And he made me a sword too.

"Here, Lucy. Eat this." Zenith handed me a bowl made of Talhand magic. It smells delicious.

"Thank you!" I thanked her as I slowly ate the soup." It's delicious!" I said out loud as I quickly ate all of it."Second please!" Zenith happily refills for me.

Zenith hummed happily as others started to compliment her food too. That's right, Zenith is the one doing the cooking. She learned it from Gesse around three months ago.

He said he was willing to teach me too if I could control my strength, but it's not really making much progress. But well, I will control my strength sooner or later anyway, so I'm not in a hurry.

…

"You Pregnant?! HOW!...When…?" I asked Zenith, who sat before us with Paul on her side.

"Around a month ago… I…did it with Paul. I will be leaving this party, Thank you so much for taking care of me for two whole years." Zenith said as she bowed her head toward us. Her eyes show sadness in them.

"...I will take care of her. It's my responsibility as the one who got her pregnant. I'm sorry, everyone." Paul said as he bowed toward us too.

… I stood up and walked toward Paul. My little hand was on his face. Pap

"That was for keeping something like that a secret." I know I didn't hurt him. My slap should feel like a kid's little slap. I walked toward Zenith next. "And what are you going to do? Are you going to leave like this?" I asked her with a poker face. I know I have no right to interfere in their lives. In fact, I should be grateful for them to pick me up. BUT! It's hurt, ya know… they are going to leave us…

"I…don't want to leave you," I said while sobbing. Tears started to flow out of my eyes as my sobbing grew louder and louder. I felt myself being picked up. It was the warm hand I had known for years.

"Shh… It's ok, Lucy, It ok," Elinalise said as she slowly caressed my back. I cried for who knew how long, but when I stopped, it was already afternoon.

"I'm…sorry…I won't act like that again…" … I want them to stay with us… but it will be hard, isn't it? AH! It's going to be in my dark history!

"We…are going to Roa to ask one of my old friends. Do you want to come with us?" Paul asks me.

"But…what about this party? Are you going to…Dissolve this party?" I ask him. He became silent for a minute. But he nods his head. "What about Elinalise! Ghislaine Talhand and Gesse!? Are you… going to leave them without a leader." I ask, my voice starting to get louder again. "You know they won't work together well without you…"

"...Yes, I know I'm being selfish, but I will leave them. I…want to take care of my child." Paul said. His face is full of determination.

"Go with them, Lucy. If you stay with us, you will just be a weight holding us down." Elinalise said her voice was shaking a bit. " Go and live your life."

"But! I don't want to leave any of you behind! And what's more, I already live my life, right? Adventure around with all of you! I-i know I'm just a kid, but-"

"I DON'T WANT YOU TO BE IN DANGER!" Elinalise yelled at me. Her voice is louder than I ever heard in my three years of staying with them. "I thought of you as my daughter, so I don't want you to stay in danger. Even this hurts me, but it is what it is. Paul and Zenith already choose this life, so it's time we start to choose our next life too. It's too dangerous for you to come with us. So… please just stay with them." Elinalise's voice is cracking. Sounds like she wants to cry but is holding it back.

I turn my head toward others to get their response, but all of them just nod their head.

"Are…we going to meet again?" I ask Elinalise.

"Yeah…we going to meet again. Maybe it take a year or Ten years, but we are going to meet again for sure. That's why the next time we meet must be when you become a splendid adult, ok?" Elinalise took me into a hug. I can feel her tear on me.

"Um…I will be a good adventure when I grow up, for sure. So… please come to visit me."

"Sure I will. When you become a splendid adventurer, I will surely find you." Elinalise said, hugging me harder.

…

It's already this day, huh? It's been more than two weeks since then. I slept with Elinalise all week. And she never goes out to satisfy her curse one bit. However, she seems to pale a bit. Ghislaine didn't say anything to me, but she gave me a lot of hugs, more than before, and was really attentive to me. She was never really good with something like this. The normal one is Gesse and Talhand. They just treat me like usual, but Gesse gave me a book about magic that he 'won' from one of his gambles, and Talhand made me a sword. Considering my height, It looks like a longsword from my view, but for others, it is just a normal-length sword. It got just the right weight for me, and the handle feels comfortable. He said that I could alter it to my liking after I learned how to control earth magic more.

I can hear the carriage coming. It seems our time is already up. "Hey…We will meet again right?" I turn my face toward Elinalise.

"Yeah, we're going to meet again. Although, I don't know when." Elinalise said with a wry smile. She is the one who raised me since I was just a baby so she is having it the hardest right now.

"Lucy." Ghislaine called out to me."Take this." She handed me a ring. The one she always wore.

"But...isn't this ring precious to you?" I ask her but she only gives me a smile and ruffles my hair.

"This ring is a charm given to me by my mother, it will keep the wolf away at night. That's why don't be scared, Lucy. We will meet again." Her gentle hand keeps ruffling my hair. The gentleness she displays is not like the usual stoic Ghislaine. But I love her like this too.

"The carriage is already here," Elinalise calls out as she holds my hand gently and guides me to the carriage. On the carriage are Paul and Zenith who just came back from the Citadel of Roa. It seems they already finished the deal with his old friend.

Zenith held her hand out toward me. I hold onto it as she pulls me up the carriage. Sitting beside her I looked at the Fang of the black wolf one last time. There stood all the members in all of their gear. They will disband the moment they sent me off.

"Here is a charm for you." Elinalise handed me a wooden charm. It's the same one she always had on her Estoc hilt. "It is a charm from the elf tribe. I made them myself. I always give them to my child before they...leave." She tries to maintain her cheerful expression like always but it crumbles when she starts to mention her child. It was a sore spot for her.

"Mmh...thank you I...will treasure this," I said with a smile holding onto the charm. I held my hand out toward her. Clench my hand into a fist and only let the pinky finger out. "Promise me you will come find me again when I grow up."

Elinalise smiles lightly and with her pinky finger intertwined with me, she just nods without a word.

I pull my hand back as the carriage starts moving away. The figure of our party kept getting smaller and smaller until I couldn't see them anymore.

…

It took around a week for us to go to Roa from Arusu. And it's going to take us another week to reach our new home. Right now we are in the mansion of the Boreas Greyrat family. It has the same surname as Paul but they are not the same house. Paul is from the Notos family.

The adults are talking right now so they leave me alone in this room. One thing I notice about this place is that there are a lot of beastmen. No that came out wrong, it should be Beastwoman. Every maid I see here is a beast woman.

There are humans but most of them are beastwoman. And they all give me some weird looks...

They weren't afraid of me or anything, just...curious? It seems that a child with hair like mind is hard to find. And most got discriminated against a lot too. Some even got sold into slavery.

Well, I'm already used to the stare. Not to brag or anything but I even got kidnapped once. The kidnappers are all dead before they can even run away.

As I thought to myself I heard a loud running noise outside. The footsteps, although loud at first when I tried to concentrate on it, sounded like a child running?

"What do you mean grandfather is busy!?"

A loud screeching just outside my door. Even though the sound came from outside it still managed to hurt my ear.

Then before I could recover myself from the sound the door opened up. And stood there was a young girl with fiery red hair and eyes. She crosses her arm as she runs into the room and looks around.

When her eyes landed on me she just froze up, then before I could say anything she started crying and ran away leaving me to stun by myself.

"...The heck?" I mutter out before going back to my magic book."What a strange girl."

…

The sound of children running, It accompanied by the wind that I was feeling right now. Everywhere I look all I saw is a golden field of wheat, a river that flow through the place, and people caring for their fields. This is where we will be staying. The Buena village.

It was in the countryside of Roa. On the north from here is Ranoa kingdom a place with a magic academy. And south is the Asura kingdom. I got to say that this place is one hell of a beautiful place. The forest is a lush green, and the air is so refreshing you can't find it in Tokyo or other places in my old world.

Although this place didn't have a lot of people in it. I think it's around fifty people or so I think? Paul said that we have around thirty households living in this village.

Most are elderly and around ten of those household is newlywed or just have a family. That explains why I saw a lot of pregnant women around here and people over fifty-year-old.

I saw some children but they were mostly around the same age as me. I think I saw one who is around twelve. I hope I can befriend them. Well, It's not the time yet so let just forgot about it for now.

"Lucy?" ah, Zenith call out to me. "are you ok? you have been absent mind for a while now." She asked me in a worried voice so I just smile at her.

"Mhh…I just look around. It's a beautiful place!" I said what was on my mind. And continue to look around and then I saw it. A beautiful house on the hill. "look Zenith it's there!" I point at where the house stood. It was a two-story house with glass windows?! Glass is very expensive in this world so it kind of surprised me here.

We arrive at the house and Paul starts to unload our thing. Zenith and I walk into the house and what can I say except it is beautiful. The dining room is big, We got both front and back yards. two bedrooms on the first floor and two small rooms on the second floor. the kitchen is big with all of the necessary and we even have a restroom. This is important because every inn we stay at never has an indoor restroom, we need to do it in their outdoor restroom and it is very uncomfortable. although I start to get used to this I really want a flush toilet.

It seems we got a stable too for the horse and Paul already bought one. his name is Caravaggio. It's was the horse that he saw when we in Roa and he like it very much that he bought it on the spot. And he cost around two Asura gold coins. meaning he cost around two-hundred thousand yen or around two thousand dollars I think. God, he is expensive. maybe we get scam? Meh, it's Paul's money anyway.

"And that all the bag! Whew, where did you guys get so many items from anyway?" Paul said as he put down all our bags inside. I walk to one of the bags and pull out the Longsword that Talhand made for me.

"I will go practice in the backyard, Bye!" I said as I wave my hand toward Paul and Zenith. Zenith wave back at me but Paul held a hand toward me and his face is pale for some reason.

"Wait! Come back and help me move our thing!" He said in a pleading voice but I pretend to don't understand why so I just turn my back toward him and skip away toward the backyard.

It's not like I don't know what he's on about but I decide it best to walk away.

And just as arrive at the backyard I can hear Zenith command Paul to unpack our thing in a hurry. Yup, he doesn't want to deal with Zenith alone. So he wants me to be with him so Zenith will be softer around. Zenith is a good woman she is just serious about taking care of us. And she got a bit of mood swings because she's pregnant right now.

"...huu…ha…" Taking in a deep refreshing breath I start to perform the practice Paul shows me. He shows me three-form. First, the Sword god form. It's relied on speed and one of the simplest. With a deep breath, I start to swing my sword. I just swing it downward then upward and continue onward. Even though I'm stronger than most people I don't have what most people have. Muscle. If I swing too hard it going to strain my body. That's why I have to adjust my strength to match each swing. With each swing, I put in enough strength that can break a small tree. and with every swing, I continue to move. This is what Paul taught me. I need to move continuously. I don't know why he said that but I just accept that and do as he told me. That is how I practice for the last year and now. Now let's focus on training.

…

It's already evening when I stop. Normally I would keep going on but I feel very tired today.

When I walk inside the house I see Paul with a very tired face sitting on the diner table. Yup, not going there. So I walk toward the kitchen and see Zenith humming while preparing our dinner. "Hey, what for dinner, Zenith?" I asked as I pop my head over the counter.

"Don't do that, Lucy. It's inappropriate." She said as she continue to chop up something.

"And today it steak. now go prepare the table." As she shoo me away I grab all the utensils and plates. That includes the one Talhand made for me. Oh, and I can grab the plate or other utensils normally now. although if I apply a bit of strength it going to break again.

I quickly set up the table and mumbled something. Within a minute of waiting Zenith bring out the steak and all the other side dishes. She put it on each of our plates and sit down herself. "now let's eat." with that, we start eating. although Zenith likes to pray before eating it seems she not doing it today. maybe it is because she knows that Paul is tired and doesn't want to pray.

and yup, the steak is really good. ah…I want Elinalise to eat this too. Let's try learning some cooking from her and when I meet Elinalise again let's make this for her. I'm going to make the best steak for her.