Hello everyone, thank you for the wait, it took me longer than expected to get this chapter the way I wanted it. so please enjoy. :D
Chapter 4 part 1 Hope
The sun is barely up near a Village called Nean where a girl with a big basket with greens walks over to a fence and tilt the veggies into a food tray over the fence. 'here you go little piggies eat up' she smiles and pets one of them.
'you sure are growing up fast' she says with a smile and puts the basket back into the barn before heading out. 'Alisa have you gotten everything' a guys voice says from the loft. 'yes I got everything, I have to go' she replies.
'are you sure? You know you tend to forget' the voice says back. 'Yes I remembered everything' she tells him once more. 'Fine just be careful I hear a few villages have been attacked by some unknown beasts lately' the voice yell.
'that is so much further north big brother so I will be fine, I am leaving now!' she yells and walks off.
she runs to change her clothes into a daily attire which is a grey commoners dress with an apron that goes from her waist to her knees and she wears a blue ribbon in her hair matching her eyes and she adjusts her light purple hair before grabbing her broom and heads out.
Swiftly she flies through the village to the other side of it. on top of a hill she sees a guy standing there with his broom.
'Tory here!' she yell and he turns to her and smile. 'sure took you long enough' he teases. 'well my brother was being a nag today so' she defends.
'ye, ye, are you ready?' Tory asks.
'I sure am' she says looking at his light blue hair and yellow eyes. He wears a black sweater and grey pants and black shoes.
Meanwhile at the black bulls hideout behind the base.
Millie looks at Asta as he and Magna is keeping their balance on a pole over some burning coal.
By Magnas expression they have been at it for a while. 'I don't get the point of this' Nero says sitting on a branch watching them. 'me ether' Liebe replies.
'Tiered yet? I can keep going' Magna lets out. 'Na'a! I can keep This up forever' Asta banter back.
Millie hears a crackling sound of lightning forming from behind and Wack!
'HEY!' Magna yell as he is knocked off into the hot coal 'Ow, ow ow ow!' he gets out and takes a breath. 'Hey what was that for lightning boy? I was winning' Magna exclaims.
'haha not by the look on your face' Luck teases. 'okey' that's It!. You asked for it Punk!' Magna yell igniting a flame in his hand then he shoots after the lightning user who runs towards the hideout.
Millie looks behind her and sees the two mess around near the Hideout walls.
Asta smiles and jumps out of the pit. 'I guess this match is over' Asta says with laughter to his voice and puts the coal back into the grill with a shovel.
'there done' he utter.
'there you are Kiddo' Vanessa says wearing a more appropriate attire
she wear a sleeveless, fit, red-violet top and miniskirt with red-violet evening gloves. The design of the top allows her to showcase much of her torso, with a large v-shaped opening exposing part of her breasts and midriff, where it is only connected at one point around her navel region. The cups that hold her breasts have curvy edges. Her miniskirt is very short and only covers her buttocks. She also wears dark purple stockings and garter belts underneath her boots.
'oh Vanessa what's up' Asta asks. 'well actually we' BANG an explosion comes from the back of the hideout .
'they are really at it' Asta says RAWR they hear growling and three magical beasts comes running out of the smoke.
'The heck! did they seriously just blow up the cages?!' Asta yells and sees Magna go After Luck running out of the hideout. 'GET back HERE!' Magna shouts as Luck laughs.
'Those two have never heard of taking it easy' Vanessa says 'Well those two know how to keep things exiting 'Asta replies seeing the beasts walk up to them.
'well at least these guys know who their friends are Asta says as the wolf like beast goes up to him and opens his mouth and bites over Astas face. 'Baah!' he lets out.
'how many times do you intend to fall for that' Liebe asks him.
'They have to learn to like me someday' Asta says forcing the beasts mouth open to get his head out of his mouth.
The big furry beast that resembles a bear with rock like horns rubs against Millie who proceeds to pet it. 'what do you mean mister' she asks and the rest looks at her. 'I rather not mister' Millie replies to the beast.
'hold on, you know what they are saying?' Asta asks.
'Well that makes sense her being part beast and all' Vanessa mentions. 'seriously?' Asta says. And the hairy and, too big gorilla starts to mess with Asta too.
'anyways, Asta I came to tell you that Yami gave us a mission that the two of us are to go on' she says.
'Oh to where?' he asks pulling the gorillas mouth open. 'to Hazu village between Nairn and Kika' she tells him.
'Got it. Though we better get these guys inside first' he says seeing the hideout magically repairing itself. 'Agreed' Vanessa replies. And they do just that.
Millie waits outside while they do.
'Will you ask her' Liebe asks. 'huh oh that right, we can do that while we are heading out' he says walking behind Vanessa.
(the way her Ki disappeared was kind of similar to how the leader of the elves disappeared when we fought him... Maybe I will learn something new?)
Once outside Nero comes flying in her bird form and lands on Astas head 'then we are all set' Nero utters and Millie jumps up to Astas shoulder in her cat form and they are off.
Later they fly through the sky and Millie looks at the clear blue sky and takes in the gentle wind while sitting on Astas shoulder.
Liebe who is sitting on Astas right shoulder, glances over at Millie with out her noticing and he pokes Astas neck who looks at him. 'right' he says and turns his Gaze to Millie.
'Millie? I have been meaning to ask you' Asta utter and Millie looks at him. 'Ask me what Master?' she says gently.
'How did you mask your Ki the way you did, during your trial the other day' he asks and she looks at him and thinks it over for a moment.
'I learned the technique while living in the land of the Sun. Over there the most people use Ki so if I were to ever catch anyone of guard I needed to learn to mask it while also doing a specific line of actions' she explains softly.
'how do you even do that?' he asks her and she thinks it over.
'One have to visualize the action in their mind first with out your body language give away your thoughts, then you let yourself go into a trance like state and you let your muscle memory take care of the rest' she tells him.
'ooh that is way cool' he tells her.
'I can't keep it up for long, so choosing which action to make is important for it to be successful and it helps if one has already seen your opponent in action so you can predict their actions in correlation to yours' she tells him.
'I see it sounds hard to pull off. But you are clearly good at it, I mean you took us all out like it was nothing' Asta tells her.
'You are giving me far to much credit Master, I only won those matches the way I did because I have already witnessed the 3 of you in action while no one have seen me in action meaning it was never a real battle to begin with' she tells him.
(she is right... when I think of it, she saw Magna and Luck battle outside the hideout, she saw me get most of those spectral beasts while witnessing Magna and Noelle give aid and she saw Noelle in her water armor and her abilities... Millie really pays attention) Asta thinks and looks at the sky for a moment.
(but the technique she just told me, it sounds like something I am able to learn) he wonders and looks at her.
'Still I wouldn't sell you that short Millie. I mean it was amazing the way you handled yourself. It is clear that you have worked really hard to master it' he tells her and for a split second Millies eyes widen and she looks straight ahead.
'I, thank you Master' she replies and Asta smiles and looks ahead and his face makes an odd expression which has Millie and Liebe look at him (what is he?).
Millie/Nero/Liebe 'WOAH!' they let out as they descend from the sky.
'Woah!' Asta yell as they head into a forest and he navigates between the trees. Ducking from branches avoiding trees.
He finds an opening and swoosh!... he ascends to the sky. 'Baah! where did these birds come from!' he yell and waves his arms around as black and red anti-birds are swarming him.
'Aaah! they are about to peck me to death!' Asta lets out and Millie gives off mana to shoe them away.
'phew they had enough that was close' he lets out.
'What the heck was that For!? you Moron?' Liebe yells. 'I was trying out visualizing and getting into the trance thing' Asta explains. 'What? While in mid flight is when you thought it would be a good idea to test it out!? you idiot!' Liebe exclaims. 'I guess not' Asta smiles
'You can practice that while you are on the ground and not up in the air' Nero tells him. 'huh that is a good idea, sorry guys' he says. 'what are you guys doing back there' Vanessa asks looking back at them.
'Asta is being reckless again' Nero says.
'Hey it wasn't that bad besides we are all okey' Asta exclaims. 'just barely' Liebe says.
Millie looks at their interactions and gives a warm smile (the way they all interact is so bold and yet warm like they have a high level of understanding... no... admiration for each other, actually all the black bulls seems to be that way) she thinks to herself as a guy with hazel brown hair and eyes comes to her mind again...
'We are getting close now guys we should probably land nearby and put on our cloaks' Vanessa says. 'right!' Asta exclaims and they do just that.
They walk through town wearing cloaks to conceal that they are magic knights.
'This is so cool' Asta exclaims barely keeping his excitement. 'Take it easy, we don't want anyone to find us out right off the bat' Vanessa tells him.
'right I am just so exited, this is the first mission I have gotten on, in forever that didn't involve reconstruction or removing degree' he tells her.
'I get what you mean, but still' Vanessa says. 'right' Asta utter concealing his excitement.
'now remember this is the guy we are looking for' Vanessa says and hands Asta a copy of a picture. It is a man with a slim face black bushy hair and really bushy eyebrows with a scar over his left eye and a small beard.
'Right' he says and they split up and looks around the village which is a little bigger than an average village in the commoner realm but way smaller than any towns closer to the capital.
The streets are calm with just a few people walking around doing their daily chores.
Later.
'This is the delivery for today, now be careful out there alright Alisa, the paths are dangerous these days' a lady says.
'I will don't you worry about me' Alisa replies and carries the boxes outside and is headed off 'ow' she bumps into someone and she shakes her head and looks aside from the boxes rubbing her face with her free hand'
'Sorry I did not see where I was going' she apologizes. 'it is cool' a glad voice says and she looks in front of herself and looks down a little and meets a guys green eyes.
'Wow you are really short' she slips out.
'Eh' Asta utter 'Ey, That is the first thing you say to someone' Asta exclaims slightly flustered.
'Well it is hard not to mention it. No wonder I didn't see you' she thinks out loud. 'And you keep going on about that' Asta says.
'What are you doing Alisa? We have work to do remember?' a guy asks. 'Tory, sorry I just got a little distracted is all, I bumped into this short guy' she says.
'is that really how you address people?' he asks and shifts his eyes to Asta 'Sorry about that mister, Alisa here is a klutz at the best of times' he says.
'hey no fair I haven't tripped or fallen, in forever' she defends.
'forever huh, how about last week when you tripped ove and fell head first into the pig pen?' Tory asks 'That did not count the pig tripped me up. We both saw what happened' Alisa blushes.
'Aha, it looked more like you stumbled over your own feet' he tells her and she blushes.
'details' she mumbles and Tory smiles and looks a Asta.
'say you look familiar haven't I seen you before somewhere? in the paper or something?' Tory asks.
'oh well I, you know I' Asta stumbles over his words.
'right you are that Magic knight named Casta or something?' Tory asks.
'wow I didn't realize I would get recognized' Asta says.
'oh you are a magic knight that I so cool. Wait come to think of it I think I saw you in the paper about a' she utter.
'yeh well it is supposed to be a secret that I am here so' Asta says. 'Huh, how come?' Tory asks.
'Well we are looking for this guy' Asta tells them and they look at the picture. 'have you seen him?' he asks.
'No I can't say that I have' Tory replies. 'me neither... but we can be on the lookout' Alisa says.
'What we can?' Tory asks. 'you can great' Asta says and he gets a finger pointed at his face. 'on one condition' Alisa says.
'Uh condition, what condition?' Asta asks. And Tory looks just as surprised as Asta is.
'yup, that once I get my restaurant up and running you will come and have a meal' she tells him.
'A meal?' Asta asks.
'Oh right I should probably have explained it first, I have a dream that I will open my very own restaurant one day' she tells him.
'You wish to open up a restaurant?' Asta asks.
'yup and I know just the right place for it too, on top of that the land is up for purchase too, which is why me and Tory here is working hard to get the money to make that dream a reality, so once I get it up and running you will have to come and eat' she tells him.
Asta smiles. 'ofcorse I will it sounds great, you have yourself a deal' Asta says and brings out his hand to her and she looks at it concerned for a second but his eyes looks so friendly so she takes it.
'Let us keep going then Alisa' Tory tells her. 'right, it was nice meeting you uuh?' she utter ' the name is Asta' he tells her.
(the commoners seems so much more hope full then the last time I was here..., come to think of it commoners weren't even among the magic knights back then ether)
Millie thinks to herself seeing their smiling faces as the boy and girl leaves.
(Meir, you were right this world is slowly changing for the better) she smiles to herself.
'right, we should probably split up to cover more ground' he says.
'I can have a look out from the sky' Nero says.
'Right and Millie can keep close to the ground keeping her eyes open' he says and looks at her. 'yes Master' she replies and jumps to the ground.
They walk their separate ways.
Millie walks around town in her cat form, letting her mind wander to Astas words 'I mean it was amazing the way you handled yourself. It is clear that you have worked really hard to master it' a warmth fills he chest as her cheek slightly blush.
She jumps up on a window sill and looks at her reflection in the window. (he is right I have worked hard. ... I forget how far I have come from the scared little girl that I used to be, a lot has clearly changed since then. Even my appearance has changed) she thinks looking at her black fur and silver eyes.