*-Rudeus-*

It's been a month since I've been born. I'm not entirely sure why I know that. I'm not entirely sure babies are meant to be this aware at all. How do I know this? No idea. All I know is that when I try to think why I do I hear a buzzing noise, get a massive headache, and then fall asleep.

It's annoying sure, but the headaches have slowly gotten better. I just wish I could open my eyes without getting blinded though.

I swear you'd think the sun was directly in front of me. I'm pretty sure my parents are worried about the fact I barely open my eyes, but they have other things to worry about. Like my leg.

It is easily my biggest and also smallest problem. As long as I keep my weight on my left side I have no issues with it. The problems rise when someone picks me up or when I go to sleep.

When people pick me up they do their best to not touch it, but when they hold me in their arms either their arm or chest push against it and hurt it.

Opening my eyes is a pain, but I've been trying to at least look at the faces of the people who live in the house.

From what I've seen there is only one man living in the house, he's a bit on the younger side probably mid 20's at most, and he has brownish hair that he keeps tied back in a ponytail and green eyes. About every 7 days or so another man will show up. I think he might be some kind of doctor or something of the like, because anytime I see him he is examining my right leg or peering into my eyes. He's got blond hair and... pointy ears. What was that race called? Oh! Elves, was the race. They were woodland people... I think. If I think to hard I'll fall asleep again, and I don't want to deal with that right now.

Then there are the ladies of the house. There is a blond lady which is the one who picks me up the most. Whenever she does pretty lights shine from her hands, and the pain in my leg weakens a bit. It's nice. I'm pretty sure that's my mom. Then there's the maid, I think? I don't really know, but when I see the uniform she's wearing that word pops into my head. I swear my brain feels like a dictionary, all I do is think of a word and I just magically know what it means. Wait what is a dictionary? Oh right those books that have a bunch of words and their meanings. Wait why do I know any of this?!

But back to the maid(?) lady. She has red hair and pretty purple eyes. About 8 times out of 10 when I open my eyes to look around she stands by my crib as if awaiting commands. I know she has other duties as when they leave the door open I can see her cleaning the floors or dusting the halls. Whenever she isn't doing her duties though she just stands by crib waiting for something to happen.

As soon as I dirty a diaper she's there to change it, as soon as I'm hungry she gets my mother, I swear she has some kind of mind reading ability. She hasn't been wrong in the reasons I've cried since I was born.

Something else I've noticed is that people really like looking at my eyes. Whenever the maid looks at me with my eyes open she typically flinches and backs up while still waiting patiently. I hope I'm not making some kind of weird face that's scaring her. When the people I'm assuming are my parents look into my eyes my mom stares and stares until I close them back. Anytime my dad looks he seems like he's uncertain and confused as he just stares at me. The elf guy doesn't have any real big reaction to it. I think for him it's just a check up to see if they are acting right.

I just wish I knew what everyone was saying. It has been so annoying not being able to hold conversation with someone. Not that I could if I understood them anyway. My vocal cords are barely developed. I can barely get out a "bah bah ah" much less actual words. I honestly wish that weird wolf skull guy from my dream would come back. At least with him I could talk in some way.

Welp I'm getting tired so I guess I'll try again. Who is the pink haired dude?

buzz*

Who is the pink haired dude?

buzz buuuzzzz*

Ow ow owwww. Who is the pink haired dude?!

I woke up in what seemed to be a sleeping bag. Looking around I saw that I was in the middle of a forest and was laying beside a recently put out campfire. I couldn't see anybody so I got up and was about to start looking for someone, and then I heard someone scream.

"AAAAAAAAH!"

Looking up I saw the source. It was a small one armed girl with a pair of black wings plummeting through the air.

"Spread your wings! You have to hold them out to catch the wind!" A man shouted as he flew past her closer to the ground with his arms stretched out ready to catch her before she got to close to the ground.

"I-I-I'm t-t-tryi-ing!" The girl yelled out as her wings spread out. Just a little longer and her wings would catch the wind and she'd be souring, but unfortunately the time the girl's wing's needed was longer than she had. The man caught he while she slowed her descent and slowly glided down to the ground.

"Uuurgh..."

The girl stumbled over to the edge of the camp and threw up into a bush.

"Well I guess that's one way to teach someone how to fly." I said absentmindedly thinking bad for the girl who was in free fall for who knows how long.

"Oh you finally woke up huh?" The man questioned as he approached me. "Sorry for the scuffle and the whole 'temporarily killing your friend' thing. Still don't get how he just got up and put his head back on but, he's out hunting right now, and he should be back soon."

Wait what does he mean temporarily killing my friend? And what am I even doing in this forest. Come on, think brain think, I know you can. Oh right Alex and I were looking for a missing child who went missing in the forest.

"Wait. Isn't that the girl Alex and I were looking for when we found you? When did she get wings and where did all her wounds go?"

"It's... complicated. I promised your friend an explanation once you woke up, so I can explain in more detail once he returns. To put it simply though, I will not this child return to that village."

He had a cold look in his eye as he said that last part. Knowing how important context is though I decided to just wait for Alex so I can hear the story. In the mean time the girl finally finished throwing up and slowly wandered over to us.

Now that I could see her it was easy to see the resemblance between the girl in front of me and the one we were looking for, but if you saw them side by side you wouldn't believe it. She had the long black hair that reached her knees, black eyes, and slightly torn up white dress with flower patterns on it. But she also had scars all over her body, was missing her left arm, and had a set of pitch black wings tearing through the back of her dress.

"Where'd those wings of hers come from? And what about all the wounds she had before?" I was confused, to say the least. When I last saw her she was covered head to toe in bloodied bandages.

"That is something we'll discuss once your friend returns. In the mean time I believe it's time for another training flight. Pin you ready?"

The girl looked at him like he was crazy and ran towards me and hid behind my back. "Are you crazy?! You can't just go up and drop me down! I'll get hurt!"

At first the man sat there and sighed looking a little shocked at her actions. Then he turned towards me with a questioning look. "I suppose that if the clown has a better idea for your flight training then we could give that a shot."

"Well first off I'm actually a jester, but second off I do have an idea."

The girl looked at me with sparkling eyes. "Really what is it? Is it fun? We don't have to go high up do we?"

"No no we'll be close to the ground. I'll make an updraft with wind magic so you can figure out how to catch the wind as best you can. I'll also be using gravity magic to make sure you don't get hurt if you mess up and to make sure you don't go to high up the updraft."

Pin's eyes shone even brighter as they started emitting a pretty golden light. Her wings started fluttering as she started skipping around the camp. The man looked back at me with a slight look of worry. "Are you sure that this is a good way to learn to fly? I've never heard of training like this."

"Don't worry. This isn't a one way ticket to flight. It's just one step in a simple training system. First you teach them to catch wind, then how to actually use it, and then you teach them what to do if they lose control. It's similar to the method your using, but instead of doing it all at once it splits it into 3 parts. I can speak from experience that it does actually work. This is how I learned to fly after all."

At this the man got really confused. "Learned to fly? You don't have any wings, how could you learn to fly?"

I activated my phoenix fruit powers and let wings of blue and yellow flame sprout from my back. The man was shocked, but shrugged his shoulders. "Well if it works and it's safe I don't see why not."

"Alrighty we can start while we wait on Alex. Ok Pin you ready? Pin?"

I looked around for the girl and found her behind me admiring my wings. "So pretty~"

"Why thank you. Now are you ready to learn how to fly my style?"

"Yes please!"

With her confirmation that she was ready I set up a magic circle for the updraft and set her in place with gravity magic.

"Okey Pin. On the count of 3 I'm going to start the updraft and hold you there for 5 minutes. After those 5 minutes are up I'm gonna let you go and you have to try and glide there for as long as you can, or 10 minutes pass. Got it?"

"Got it!"

I started the updraft letting a decently powered wind current blow up into the air. Pin was ready and as soon as the wind hit she was shifting her body and wings trying to catch the wind. After about 3 minutes she was successful and I let go of my gravity magic and she wobbled for barely a second before she regained her balance. I stopped the updraft after another 7 minutes and watched as she slowly glided down to the ground and then ran and hugged the man.

"I did it! I did it! Did you see? I got the wind!"

The man reached down and started petting her head with praise. "Good job little crow! You were able to hold yourself for 5 minutes straight on your first try!"

"7 minutes actually. She was holding herself just fine after the 3 minute mark so I let go."

"I'm so proud of my little crow."

There was a rustling in the bushes as Alex came into camp pulling what looked like 3 pig sized rabbits behind him.

"Yo! I'm back! Who's hungry? Oh Cross your awake. How'd ya sleep?"

"Slept fine I guess. Now that your back though isn't there a conversation we all need to have."

Alex and I both looked at the man who was now scratching a spot on his wings. "Yes I believe there is. Let me get the fire started so I can cook us some lunch while we talk."

Alex went over to to grab his catch and dragged it back towards the fire. I felt a sudden force shove against my side and when I looked Pin was hugging my leg looking up at me with shining eyes.

"Thank you! Thank you for helping me learn how to fly!"

I ruffled her hair earning a pouty face from the girl. I don't think she realizes that she's leaning into my hand but oh well.

"It's no problem, but we aren't done yet. You can catch the air so now you have to learn to ride it. We can practice more after we eat."

Really whether or not I help with her practice depends on why the man is so adamant about her not going back to that village.

"Cross come here! We are starting!"

I sat to Alex's left and Pin sat to the man's right. The man started the conversation as he put meat on skewers and set them over the fire.

"I'll start by introducing myself. I am Azazel Angel of Death. What are your names?"

"I'm Cross the Raging Phoenix."

"I'm Technoblade the King of Beasts."

Technoblade? Like what those people in Cyber City called him? Wait we talked about this last night didn't we? Gah why does my memory have to be so flimsy?!

Wait didn't he show up in my dream? He died I think. So does that mean he is actually my familiar now? Questions for later. It looks like Azazel is gonna start talking.

"I usually get more shocked reactions when I tell people who I am. This is a nice change of pace. Guess I'll start explaining Pin's situation. About 20 years ago a women entered the village of Osheau. She told them that unless they wish for a poor harvest and infertility amongst their women that they must send 1 child into the woods every year. The child mustn't be older than 8 years old and must have black hair and black eyes. The child you see here is one of these children. She caught my lady's eye whenever Pin was thrown into the forest and started using death magic to fend off beasts. Usually someone without my lady's permission using death magic would warrant immediate extermination. But Pin is special. She is 7 years old as of 3 days ago and yet has a level of control over death magic very few can obtain. So my lady sent me here to retrieve the girl and save her. However the same women who visited the village 20 years ago returned and said that if she remained alive the village would be cursed with no harvest and infertility for the next decade. Which is why they made such a huge search party for one girl."

Well that's not what I was expecting.

"A seven year old girl casting death magic huh? Sounds interesting."

Techno[So what do we do?]

Cross[HOLY @!&?]

Techno burst out laughing at my reaction as Azazel and Pin looked at him confused.

"Is he okey?" Azazel pointed at Techno holding his sides cause he's laughing to hard.

"He's fine. Just give him a minute."

Techno[Okey wasn't expecting that. But what should we do?]

Cross[To be honest. Not really sure. If what he says is true than sending her back to the village will only get her killed. Do we have anything to do for the foreseeable future?]

Techno[No I don't believe so why?]

"Hey Azazel. Where are you going to go now that you got Pin?"

"Well to get to my lady's domain we first need to get through the badlands and jump through one of the ravines."

"Is it possible to get there on foot?"

"Well yes it is. We would have to travel on foot due to the how many dragons there are around the area so ground travel is basically required. Why do you ask?"

"Would you be fine allowing us to accompany on your journey? Techno and I have just been walking around finding stuff to do, and I can continue helping Pin with flying practice on our way there."

Azazel closed his eyes contemplating something. "Give me a moment."

He stood up and walked towards the edge of the camp and held out his hand with a finger extended. A crow flew out from the shadows and opened its mouth as it stared at him. Azazel spoke into the bird's mouth to quiet for me to hear. The crow cawed flying into the air and it dived back into the shadows.

"And now we wait." He said as he came back and sat by fire. He picked off the meat skewers and passed them around to everyone as we sat and ate in silence.

Shortly after we finished our meals Pin ran over and tugged on my sleeves.

"So can we practice flying again please~?!"

"Sure. Let me get some stuff set up first."

"Okay!"

I flew up into the air and drew a large perimeter in the air with barrier magic.

"All right I put up a controlled wind current in the sky. It goes in a circular pattern so all you have to do is catch the wind and ride it for 10 minutes. It's basically what you did before, but this time you're in the sky, moving, and having to turn. Think you can do that?"

She nodded her head up and down repeatedly.

"Yeah I'll do my best!"

Oh she's to cute! Must protect the little marshmallow!

"Ok come here I'll carry you up there. We'll have to practice take offs and landings another time."

With that I scooped her up princess style and flew her towards the wind current.

"I'll be able to catch you with magic if you lose control, but before I have to do that I want you to try to fix the problem yourself first. If you lose balance I'll leave you be for 3 minutes or I'll catch you immediately if you leave the area. If you get flipped over I'll give you 1 minute. If you do get flipped over try to force yourself back by tucking your wings and forcing your shoulders in a circular motion. Got it?"

"Right right! So 3 minutes if I lose balance, 1 minute if I flip over, and if I flip over then tuck my wings and spin my shoulders around. Right?"

"Yep you got it. Here we are. You ready?"

"Yes yes yes!"

Well someone's exited.

Needless to say she passed with flying colors.

I let her glide back down on her own. I followed her as I looked around the forestry to see what I could see from the sky. It was a big forest and out to the West was the village that Pin was from. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary and the crops looked fine, so I'm pretty sure the lady Azazel was talking about was some demon looking for some easy souls. I'll have to look into that later.

"She passed with flying colors! Truly natural talent at its finest."

Techno sighed at my pun as Azazel let out a small giggle as Pin ran over and hugged him around the waist.

"Did you see? Did you see? I did it! I was all like woosh, and the wind was like weesh! Eeeeh I'm so happy I can fly!"

Azazel gently squatted down and patted her head with a grin on his face.

"Now now it's truly wonderful you can little crow, but don't get ahead of yourself. You can fly in a controlled environment yes, but flying without a wind draft is much harder. Plus you haven't learned how to take of yet, and don't think I didn't see you stumble with that landing."

Pin pouted but didn't argue back.

buzz buzz*

"Ngh what the heck?"

buzz buzz buzz!*

"Ack!"

I clutched my head as I fell to the ground.

"Mr.Cross!"

Pin ran towards me as my vision started to blur.

*-Lilia-*

The young master has been sleeping for quite some time now. I hope there isn't anything wrong. Its nearly been 12 hours.

I stood dutifully at my young master's crib side awaiting for his awakening or for the master or madam to give me an order. I found myself staring at the young master's leg remembering past memories.

I was the star of my father's dojo. Many students there idolized me as there were none who could beat me in a duel.

Then he showed up. Paul Greyrat. A prodigy of a swordsman who beat everyone in my fathers dojo. Upon finding himself bored he decided that as a "parting gift" he'd defile the dojo master's prized daughter.

To say I have mixed feelings on this matter would be an understatement. I pushed Paul to better himself as to not waste his talent. He was quite handsome and I while I did find him attractive no women should be treated how he treated me that night.

After Paul left and my father learned of what happened he cast me out of the dojo in shame for our family. I was able to find work as a maid and bodyguard for a princess in the capital city of Ars. One night an assassin broke into the castle in an attempt to kill the princess. While I was able to save her I was not able to get out unscathed. The assassin had wounded my leg greatly with a poisoned knife. The doctors were able to heal my leg to an extent, but I was unable to run or use a sword because of the poison's after effects.

The palace then fired me without any form of severance pay though that is to be expected. Why would you hire a trustworthy bodyguard when you could get one that no one would notice if they were to disappear. In fear that the royal family may try to silence me because of what I know I fled to the Fittoa region. It was there that I stumbled upon a job request for a maid/midwife position for a lesser knight in a small village called Buena. And while the pay was good for such an out of the way location it was the name that caught my eye. It was none other than Paul. Apparently the fool had managed to settled down with his pregnant wife and they needed help with the baby. So I went to Buena figuring that if he didn't accept me I could use his past actions as leverage to get the job.

To my surprise however, he and his wife accepted me with open arms. Things were a little awkward between me and the master at first, but that quickly faded as time past.

Then the day came where the young master would be born. Paul pacing around the room, the madam pushing with all her might, and then that cursed snake attacked.

The poor young master would have to live with a leg injury worse than my own. Had I only been more astute or better prepared the outcome may have differed. But in the end what happened has happened and I swore that from now till the day I die I shall ensure that I can help the young master whenever I can. I do not wish for him to experience the kind of pain my leg has cost me and I know that his shall be so much worse. However, I will do everything in my power to assist him and ease that pain as best I can.

I was worried with how little he opened his eyes, but those little worries turned to fears about 2 weeks after his birth. Whenever the young master opened his left eye his pupil was light blue with a ring horizontally circling around it like a ring to big for a finger. A magical eye is usually a tell tale sign of a blessed or cursed child, but those eyes usually come in pairs and as no harm or blessing has happened it is not possible to tell which one he is. Because of this I have opted to stay quiet and observe. By 6 months if nothing bad happens around the young master I shall propose the idea that he is a blessed child to the master and madam.

There are times where he opens only his right eye, and when he does it looks like the empty and consuming gaze of a regular baby. But whenever he opens his left eye he focuses and looks around as if he is studying his surroundings. No regular child should have that look in there eyes which only provides further evidence towards the blessed or cursed child idea.

It has only been 1 month and then it happened.

It was like any other day. I had finished all my duties for the day and it wasn't quite time to start preparing dinner. The young master had been asleep for nearly 12 hours at this point and I was starting to get worried.

"Lily has he still not woken up yet?"

Madam Zenith poked her head through the door way looking worried as she looked towards the crib in the corner of the room.

"Not yet madam but I am sure he shall wake up in due ti-"

"Wah waah!"

zzap zapp*

"Wah! Lily what's happening?!"

The madam cried out as everything in the room slowly started floating upwards as what looked like tiny specks of purple lightning flickered around the room.

I looked over and saw the young master's left eye wide open as the ring around his now purple pupil had shifted to ring around the whole pupil like a magic circle, and was spinning like a wheel an a cart.

The cradle and young master slowly started floating and I reached out and grabbed the young master.

"N-now now young m-master. There is no need t-to cry. Everything is okay."

I was terrified. Everyone knows that one must fear lightning. Even just a single lightning bolt is all it could take to destroy a house. No human or beast folk could survive a direct hit to a lightning strike. It was a force that could only be wielded by king-ranked water mages, and all those can be counted on 2 hands.

"Wah babu!"

The objects slowly came down as the young master's eye closed and the top parts of the little hair he had went white.

"L-Lily is Rudy okay?!"

The madam came rushing to me as she examined the young master.

"Why is his hair white? Is this mana exhaustion? How could he have mana exhaustion? What kind of magic even was that?"

"Madam if I may speak my thoughts."

The madam took the young master from my arms and nodded her head to me as she brushed her fingers upon the young master's white hairs.

"I believe that the young master may be a sort of blessed or cursed child."

The madam looked at me with a blank stare that slowly shifted to that of a shocked expression.

"Huh! A blessed child?! My little Rudy?"

"Or cursed madam. As much as I hate to say it we cannot definitively say if he is blessed or cursed until we better understand what he could do."

"Or c-cursed?" The madam quietly whispered to herself as she clutched the young master being mindful of his leg. "I'll have to talk to Paul about this whenever he returns from his rounds. Whenever I do will you join us so that you can tell us as much as you can?"

"Of course madam. So long as the young master is concerned I shall do everything I can to ensure his safety."

"Thank you Lilia. It means a lot."

"Please madam. I'm simply doing my job."

And that wraps up chapter 2. We started with Rudy, got more backstory, and ended with Lilia. All in all it's a very informative chapter as we meet 2 of Cross's friends, Lilia's backstory, and you get a sneak peak at Rudeus' new demon eye. I hope you all enjoyed this chapter and I'll see you in the next one!