Yami stood in line and saw two familiar mages step into place behind him, and he was immediately recognized.
"Ateeeemmmmm!" One of the women lowered her hood and gave him a polite curtsey while her friend merely nodded.
Yami nodded at them both and silently wished they wouldn't scream his name so loudly, because it drew stares from the neighboring adventurers. He struggled to remember their names but thankfully didn't have to, because a third mage appeared behind them and bowed respectfully, addressing the two women.
"Mage Emble. Mage Gen," the man bowed at the two women again, and they giggled, curtseying back and lowering their hoods to smile at him. "Mage Breki, we meet again."
Yami turned away with a grit of his teeth, inching forward with the line while trying to separate himself from them, but they were intent on talking to him.
"Mage Atem!" A heavy arm landed around his shoulders, and Yami flinched, edging away from the man.
"Please don't touch me," Yami said stiffly as he took another step forward in the line, praying it would move faster. "I've just returned from another dimension that was experiencing contamination, so particles might still be on my cloak."
"Contamination?" The other two women crowded around his elbows, their eyes shining with interest. "A human dimension? I went recently too! They were all wearing face coverings like Alchemists."
"Are we all being sent to that dimension to pick up monsters? Wonder who let something leak," the mage named Emble pinched her nose and tossed her long red hair over her shoulders with an air of indifference. "Whatever. More missions means more gold."
Her dark-haired friend adjusted her cloak around her shoulders while whispering excitedly, "I had a nice date with a human man! Say, Atem, at our District Party, how did that human man treat you? Well, I hope? We all owe you 100 gold for winning that bet!"
There was a tense silence and Yami realized he had to answer, so he nodded, swallowing awkwardly when all the mages began magicking gold pouches out for him to take, so he accepted them graciously, his cheeks burning.
The mage named Breki was about to drop the pouch of gold into his palm when he withheld it with a gleam in his eye and snickered, "so? How was that human's service? We want to hear about it."
"Nothing happened," Yami lied, his tongue swelling at the memory. "He gave me a massage and I felt much better afterwards."
"That's it?" Mage Gen pulled a dramatic face and crossed her arms. "Human men in other dimensions are different from the ones here… I heard you can exchange love with them and receive love in return."
Yami listened with interest even though he told himself he didn't care.
Human love was an interesting concept, but sharing love with a human and receiving love in return? Odd indeed.
The male mage handed him the sack of gold and chuckled quietly, "Yeah, I heard that too. Sharing a relationship with a human in another dimension is troublesome and difficult though. Time passes differently. Remember Mage Hans? He had a woman friend for every dimension—"
"Nobody cares about that, Mage Breki," Mage Gen interrupted with her cheeks pink. "We're talking about human men in this dimension and others, not human women."
The male mage's face darkened, and he looked towards the front of the line, visibly distressed as he muttered, "the human men here are not ideal. They're greedy and sick. The ones I've met have all been terrible to me."
Yami's throat tightened as he took a few steps forward in line, grateful that he was almost at the counter, but he wasn't enjoying this conversation one bit. He avoided humans in this dimension as much as possible, and his fellow mage's descriptive encounters with them was giving him anxiety.
"Maybe because you're a man," Mage Emble said kindly, resting her arm on the male mage's shoulder. "Most human men prefer women. You should always ask before starting any kind of connection. Chances are they might not even like you as much as you think."
Yami's stomach twisted unpleasantly as he recalled the shouty human man while the line moved up again and cleared. The woman at the counter waved him forward, so he hurried up to her and handed the monster over in the glass flask, his chest tight with turmoil.
That human man hadn't liked him as much but had engaged in a connection with him anyway. Was that considered coercive behavior on his part? Or mistreatment of a human?
"Here is your payment scroll," the woman said, handing him his reward before adding, "would you and your party be free to participate in a series of Ascension Quests?"
Yami blinked rapidly and realized she thought the mages behind him were his friends.
"I'm required to ask every mage that approaches this counter because they're shorthanded. The rewards for each quest has been raised 8,000 gold," she said coolly, noticing the spiky-haired mage's frown. "Each."
Yami opened his mouth to decline when the two women behind him rushed forward and squealed breathlessly, "yes! We accept! 8,000 each? Sign us up as a party! Breki, get over here!"
"I can't," the male mage whined, giving his brown ponytail an anxious tug as he adjusted his robes around his long hair. "Lyla is hatching soon. I need to stay by her side to keep her from imprinting on someone else."
"Can we bring any pets, familiars, wards, or spiritual guidance?" Mage Gen asked seriously, and the woman behind the counter nodded, handing her a quest scroll with a black seal.
"Yes. All magical creatures associated with you are welcome to participate. They are requesting all the help they can acquire," the woman said calmly as Yami was handed a scroll with a black seal too, so he held it helplessly in his fist, feeling it grow heavier. "Now please step aside and don't register yourselves while blocking this payment counter, thank you."
Yami gripped the scroll and moved to stand by a pillar while the other three mages stayed by the counter to receive their payment. He then saw a helper pixy come zooming up to him in a blinding streak of light.
"I've been asked to put four mages down as Black Seal Scroll participants," the pixy squeaked happily, waving her hand and bringing up an empty registration box for a party. "Full name and any helpers you'll be bringing?"
Yami stared at the pixy's glowing wings and fought with himself as he wondered if he should bring Seto along. It should be fine…
"Atem, and my ward is a 30-year-old elf-mix named Seto."
"Ah, a powerful pair," the pixy chirped as she waved her tiny hand, and Yami saw his name appear on the form together in a way that made his stomach curl.
ATEM [mage lvl 748] / SETO [mage's apprentice lvl 000 -unknown]
That couldn't be more accurate.
Seto's power was quite unknown.
Yami tucked the scroll away and hurried out of the building, not waiting to see if his new 'friends' had registered with the same pixy. These quests were a great way to test Seto's unknown skill set.
As he walked down the street, Yami unfurled the scroll to read the extensive list of requests.
It was rare that the Districts got along enough to issue quests, so all the tasks would bring them in contact with humans and other hybrid creatures who would also be participating. If anything, it could be a good socializing experience for Seto, who had never even played with other children before, ever.
He turned the corner and saw Mai's restaurant hover into view, and his heart leapt with joy when a line of patrons was once again wrapping around the tavern, with Seto making his way down the wall while balancing one tray on his arm and another impressively on his head, earning laughter and praise from the patrons.
"Adorable!" A human man knelt to Seto's height to take the bowl of soup from the child's tray and handed him a small knife sheathed in a leather pouch, which Seto accepted happily with a beaming smile.
"It's a cadet dagger. Don't hurt yourself now," the man winked and Seto tucked it into his apron with an excited flush. A weapon! He'd never received a weapon as a tip before! These humans always gave him good stuff because he'd eavesdropped enough to know they always adventured into gorges and dungeons.
"Thanks mister," Seto flashed his fangs and earned another admiring look from the human's partner, who gave him a small emerald after taking the last cup of soup from his tray.
"Little dragon boy, thank you for your service," the man gave him a dramatic bow, and Seto laughed gleefully, stacking his trays together and hugging them to his chest to bow in return.
Yami watched this interaction from afar, his heart wrenching.
It appeared Seto was socialized…but serving people in a tavern wasn't the best way for a child to pass their time. Seto needed time with other thirty to fifty-year-old children.
Seto rushed back into the restaurant to refill his tray, bursting with a rare spark of excitement at the thought of playing with the cadet knife.
Mai met him at the entrance of the bar and stacked eight bowls onto his tray and sent him back out the door again. He nearly dropped them all when he saw Yami walking in through the door with a pretty smile and an approving nod.
"Yami! You're back!" Seto struggled to see more of Yami's face over the top of his tray which was loaded with soup, and the mage levitated the bowls up for him before bending down to give him a tight hug. Seto felt his ears burn as he caught a whiff of a familiar scent, and he locked his arms around Yami's neck to hug him in return.
"Finish up here. I'm taking you somewhere fun," Yami said vaguely, and Seto gave him a wide smile before taking the tray back and teetering out the door to serve the patrons still in line outside.
Yami stood up slowly and nearly headbutted Mai in the chest on his way up, and the elf stepped back to give him an appraising up and down glance with a pen tucked behind her ear.
"Where are you taking him?" Mai asked as a crowd of adventurers filed to the bar, and she walked away to tend to them, so Yami followed and stood beside her, slowly filling up drink orders while he talked.
"Questing. The seal was black, which means it's great for all power levels," Yami said quietly as he handed a two-colored drink over the counter and corked the glass bottle, noticing Mai's frown deepening.
The elf didn't say anything and continued to pour drinks until the crowd thinned, and Yami had a feeling she was withholding something.
"He's too powerful for a black sealed scroll," Mai said after the last patron had walked away from the bar, waving at Seto who came rushing back inside with empty trays, red-faced with excitement.
"I know that, but it's more for his socializing than anything else," Yami protested, nearly getting hit in the chest with the two empty trays that came sliding at him from across the counter when Seto tossed them up with too much force.
"I'm going upstairs, don't disturb me! Mai, I want my cut today because I need a polishing amethyst, thanks bye!" The child cried as he hugged a sheathed knife to his chest and raced up the steps to slam the door.
"Brat," Mai muttered under her breath as she ran a cleaning spell over the counter, turning to address Yami again. "I don't recommend taking him out, and you'll have to see for yourself when I say that he knows how to solve problems fast. He doesn't need to go questing with you to meet other kids. What he needs is… I don't know, but not that. Those books you brought sure keep him quiet though. Get more of those. He's halfway done with that stack already."
"Those came from a contaminated human dimension. I don't intend to go back," Yami said quietly as he felt another pang of regret sear through him when he thought of the human man with glasses and grey hair.
Mai shrugged carelessly and left him there to serve a table that had filled up with twelve adventurers, so Yami quietly made his way up the steps to knock on Seto's door, hearing the child call out fluidly in elvish, "come in!"
Yami stepped inside and closed the door behind him, slightly amazed that Seto had organized the bookshelf to create more space for the new books and had decorated the shelves with various gems he'd received as gifts from patrons.
"Yami, look!" Seto unsheathed the knife gleefully and gazed at his own reflection in the blade. "The human adventurers, Tristan, and I-forgot-his-partner's-name gave me this!" The blade was slightly curved and was a bit dull at the end, but a little polishing, and it would be an amazing dagger fit for his small hands.
He brandished it happily and felt Yami gently close his hand around his wrist to lower the knife.
"You may take it with you because we're going questing together," Yami said warmly as he pulled out the black sealed scroll to hand it over, and it was snatched out of his hand with such force the paper nearly tore.
"Hey!" Yami cried, but Seto was engrossed with the scroll, his blue eyes were wide with joy as he scanned the list of quests.
"…Translate," Seto breathed, and the letters glowed, slowly rearranging themselves into Japanese the longer he stared. He knew he should be reading it in elvish, but his mind was too full of all the Chinese he was cramming.
The scroll was filled with familiar and unfamiliar names of places he'd only heard about, and Seto's heart leapt with joy. Finally. The chance to explore Chatlam's Dungeon where most adventures got their raw gems!
He kept reading with feverish excitement, already seeing a few quests he wanted to do.
Lair of Darkness – mine gems of any kind and any rarity from Chatlam's Dungeon and submit them to the Alchemist in District 2. All gems will be traded in for 1 gold. Giving any gems high in titanium and magnesium will be rewarded with 2 silvers in addition to the 1 gold. We will not accept cut gems. Thank you for understanding.
Grinning Grave Virus – lost souls are wandering too frequently in daylight. Please help the souls find peace and bring relief to the neighboring villages of District 1.
Level 50 High Priest required for this task.
10 gold for the entire adventuring party.
Darklight Curse – vile plants that emit a foul scent are growing invasively on the outskirts of District 4, affecting mounts of all levels by draining their energy as they're riding into the city. Eliminate the roots of the plants to ensure that they don't grow back. 1 gold for every plant destroyed.
Fiend Yoshiro – a level 200 fiend monster is roaming in the Meadows of Khasyn in District 5. It replicates itself as a defense tactic, and the source of the fiend is difficult to locate. All magical beings are encouraged to remove the fiend, encouraging it to disperse using any method possible. 150 gold for every party member involved.
There were many, many more listed below, and Seto lowered the scroll, his heart thudding in his ears as he gazed into Yami's beaming face. Hey, this sounded like a fun bonding adventure.
"I want to enter Chatlam's Dungeon," Seto announced, and predictably, Yami shook his head in disapproval.
"How about…" Yami took the scroll from Seto and skimmed it briefly before reading aloud, "…Synchron Particle Harvesting in District 4. There will be other elf children there gathering particles, and the reward is 30 gold for every full bag—"
"That's boring!" Seto interrupted furiously, aware that Yami wanted him to 'socialize' because he'd overheard the mage talking to Mai downstairs about it. "I don't want to play. I want to get stuff."
"We can get plenty of stuff," Yami nodded encouragingly as he reached down to adjust Seto's cloak around his tiny shoulders. "…Because you'll be harvesting particles."
Seto grit his teeth in mild fury as Yami held his hand and led him to the middle of the room to prepare for teleportation, patting down his pockets kindly with a smile.
"Got everything? Let's put this knife here," and a leather strap was lengthened, looped over his head, and the dagger rested snugly on Seto's tiny chest, right beneath the necklace of the dragon's fang.
Seto kept gritting his teeth and said nothing, secretly fuming.
Yami's hand was warm in his as he was pulled into the teleportation circle, and the floor glowed briefly before Seto had shut his eyes from the brightness.
They arrived at the outskirts of a grassy meadow where children were running over lush grass, carrying giant mesh bags and shrieking with laughter while they chased bright dots of light. Tents with woven colored cloth were propped up in a line along the other side of the meadow. Monsters, humans, and hybrid creatures were being served food while several other groups of people lounged in the grass atop stitched blankets.
The wonderful, sweet scent of cooked food drifted towards them, and Seto wrinkled his nose.
Great.
This wasn't questing.
Yami had taken him to a freaking summer matsuri to play with other kids.
He was led to a big yellow tent where a man with a giant rabbit's head was handing out mesh sacks for 1 gold coin, and Yami bought three for them.
Seto gripped the mesh sacks and glared at the other children running around in the distance, trying to gauge where he'd fit in. Some kids had pointy ears, some kids had full-on animal characteristics, with snouts, tails, hooves, and ears.
He noticed the kids who looked more human had grouped themselves together in one large circle, while the hybrid children stuck in smaller groups of 2 and 3. The bias was real.
Yami walked them over underneath a large tree and materialized a stitched blanket on the ground, along with a couple of books. The spiky-haired mage sat down calmly with a small smile as he picked up a book and opened it.
"Go on, have fun. One entire sack is 30 gold!" Yami nodded encouragingly as shrill laughter of the children pierced the air around them. "Mai tells me you only get 12 gold on a good day without tips."
Seto grit his teeth and felt his cheeks burn. This was…humiliating!
He was being forced to play with other kids! Fuck no! Not for 30 gold, not for 300 gold.
He was above this shit as a grown-ass adult stuck in a kid's body.
"I want to go to Chatlam's dungeon," Seto tried again, but realized Yami had made up his mind and was intent on staying in his book. "Please? Yami, please!"
He'd try begging. He'd cry, throw a tantrum, or hell, teleport himself away.
Yami casually turned a page and shrugged delicately, "well, if you can fill up three bags, I'll think about letting you walk 35 paces into the dungeon—"
"Done!" Seto snarled, and he snatched all three mesh bags up in his arms and stomped away, steaming.
He stood in the middle of the meadow as the other kids raced past him, screaming joyfully, it made his ears thrum, so he shoved his hand into his pocket to touch the quieting stone for comfort, and the sounds of laughter instantly muffled around him.
…Fuck this afterlife. But maybe this was what he deserved.
Letting his breath out in a huff, Seto saw a dot of light zoom past his nose, so he reached his hand out to grab it, but it melted through his fingers and floated away. F-Fuck this…! He opened the mesh sack and swiped at the dot of light with a growl and realized… it would take all day to fill up this one sack with these tiny particles. He needed a team. The other kids had teamed up already, having realized this too.
His mind churned as he scanned the crowd of kids, picking out a girl with dark pigtails and walking straight towards her. She kind of looked Japanese, and her friends also looked sort-of Asian, so Seto hoped he would find kinship with them, but the moment they saw him approaching, they backed away in fear.
"Go away. We don't want to be friends with you," the girl with twin-tails said shakily, her brown eyes wide with fear. "You have pointed ears. Go play with the other elves." She jerked her head over at the circle of boys sitting in the shade of a nearby tree.
Seto clenched his fists in his pockets. F-Fine. Holy shit. Kids were mean!
He stalked over to the boys in the shade, but then realized he didn't fit in here either, because they all had some hue of light-colored hair, and green or hazel eyes.
"You're a monster," one of the boys with the prettiest features spoke up brattily, pointing at the rowdy beast-children running around in circles in the middle of the meadow. "You look like you're half-dragon. I saw you try to hang out with the mage girls, and if they don't want you, we don't want you either."
Seto's mouth dropped open and he swayed on the spot. W-Wow!
All the human-ish kids were banishing him to hang out with the beastly rejects because he looked outwardly like a monster, even while wearing Yami's high-powered cloaking ring? Fuck this so much!
His blood boiling, Seto stomped across the grass and approached the first kid with an animal head that he could talk to, but the boar-headed child ignored him and ran right past him, dragging his friends, a tiger-headed girl, and a horse-hooved boy with wings on his back, along with him.
Perfect.
The beast kids didn't want to hang out with him because he looked too human for their tastes.
Defeated, Seto walked to sit under the nearest tree for relief from the two suns beating down on his shoulders, and leaned against the trunk, scheming for a way to harvest the most particles by somehow duplicating himself, because fuck teamwork. He'd only rely on himself.
He heard a sniffle behind him, so he twisted around suspiciously, hearing the tree trunk sniffle again, so he edged around it to see a child with a giant anteater's head attached to a human lower body, and he immediately understood.
"Hey. Let's team up," Seto said awkwardly, wondering what gender the child was, and he guessed it was a girl because she had her black hair done into a neat ponytail with a red bow.
The anteater child froze and didn't lift her long snout, shaking her head furiously.
Go away! She shouted in her mind, hugging her knees tighter to her chest. Everyone hates me, and I don't want to be here anyway!
"Wow, me neither. Help me gather three bags so I can leave," Seto rolled his eyes and sat down boldly beside her, splaying his empty mesh bags out for her to see. "Can we weave these together somehow? I really want to go home."
The anteater girl hiccupped and composed herself, finally raising her head to look at him, taking in his messy brown hair tucked under a mage's cap and the long cloak. A mage elf-mix who didn't fit in with the mage girls or the elf boys? Weird.
"I'm…not any of those things. Can you keep a secret?" Seto asked fervently, eager to make a fast connection so he could get to the dungeon. "Want to see my broken horns?"
He whipped his hat off his head, lowered his chin to his chest and then shoved the hat back on his head just as fast.
When he raised his head, he was met with a stunned silence and wide, unblinking eyes.
Oh…shit…?
That had been a bad move…
"S-Someone c-cut your h-horns off?!" The girl shrieked, and Seto held his hands up defensively as he felt her fear and pity cut through him like a hot knife, it made him cringe.
"I'm fine! I can still talk and walk normally!" Seto insisted, aware that he'd freaked her out with a 'deformity'. "And I can still do magic, okay? So can we team up? Please? ...And I hate saying please."
The anteater girl visibly swallowed and then nodded, pulling some mesh sacks out from behind her back in a giant, ashamed fistful.
"My mom says I need to fill five bags. I'm never leaving!" She lamented, spreading them out in the grass before them. "How can we combine it? The sacks can't have holes, or the particles will leak."
"Can you do magic?" Seto asked curiously, and the girl nodded with a half-shrug.
"Yes," she muttered, touching her bow with nervous fingertips. "I do…lots of bad magic."
"No such thing. I'll trade you," Seto said loftily, sitting cross-legged in front of her. "Teach me a spell and I'll teach you one."
"Okay. This is for digging up seeds," the anteater girl said uncertainly, pointing at the ground and muttered a spell that made small holes appear in the ground, leaving mounds of dirt in a tight pattern, looking like small animals had made them methodically.
"Cool, let me try," Seto breathed, and he repeated her spell, feeling his fingertips tingle as the ground erupted with larger holes, even causing a mini earthquake. The leaves shook above their heads and rained down around them, causing the girl to squeak and cover her head.
Oops.
The kids in the meadow froze in fear, and all the parents stopped chatting to glance around, searching for the source of the quake.
"You're…broken!" The anteater girl hissed, peeking out from behind the trunk to glimpse her mother sitting on the blanket, completely unaware. "Your horns are cut, so you can't control your magic! Do it softer!"
"I can control my magic just fine!" Seto protested, and deep down, he realized she might be right. That's why he kept appearing in other dimensions in weird bodies. That's why his voice kept slipping in and out of elvish, sometimes combining with his demonic rasp, making it hard for him to blend in even a little.
Damn…
The anteater girl sat back on her heels and looked thoughtful for a moment, and then reached forward to grab his hand, squeezing it tightly until it made Seto sweat. W-What?!
"I'm sorry you're hurt," she said quietly, and Seto felt his stomach turn. Okay…
"Now put the holes back. I'll be your channel instead," the anteater girl said bossily, so Seto swallowed thinly and shook his head.
"I don't know how to do that—"
"Yes you do. Just think about it really hard, and say the spell in reverse," the girl snapped, and Seto let his breath out slowly, trying to quell his anxiety as he did as he was told, mentally rehearsing the phrase backwards before he said it aloud, and the ground slowly healed itself while his hand grew hot in her's, so much that it made his entire body burn strangely, but she didn't let go until the grass had fully grown to the correct length.
She let out a visible sigh of relief and gave him an unblinking stare.
"You're very strong, but…not all there," she said quietly, arranging the mesh sacks in front of them. "Try not to get in trouble, okay? You can perform the merging spell for these sacks if you can shake the ground. Please try it."
"I don't know how!" Seto protested anxiously, and she reached out to hold his hand again.
"Yes, you can! You're a demon!" she insisted. "My dad tells me stories about your clans, and you can will things into existence from other worlds! Now make the sacks come together or I'll tell everyone you're a demon!"
S-Seriously?! Seto reeled as he stared at the eight mesh sacks, listening to the loud thumping of his own heart. He had to thank Yami for bringing him here to do this shit. He was being forced to use magic outside of his comfort zone.
Staring at the mesh sacks, he appraised them and noticed they were glittering with solid threads in a gridlock pattern. But there were thicker strands tied in with all the rest, so he tentatively reached out to pluck one out, tugging at it until the sack deformed.
Okay, this was the point of tension.
He unraveled it and quickly joined it with another thick strand from the sack beside it and sighed with relief as the grid pattern merged seamlessly and became one larger sack.
S-SUCCESS!
"You did it!" The anteater girl whispered excitedly, holding up the larger sack with glittering eyes. "You're amazing! How old are you?! You look like you're 20."
Seto shook his head stiffly, and the girl gave him another appraising up and down look.
"Not bad for a 30-year-old," she sniffed, pushing the other sacks towards him. "I'm 70, way older than you, so trust me when I say you can weave all these together, and we can catch particles faster than anyone!"
Seto swallowed thickly and nodded again, lowering his head to concentrate on the glowing sacks, secretly amazed at himself for being able to see the weave pattern of the sacks. Before long, he managed to combine all eight sacks to create one giant sheet of the glittering fabric while the anteater girl clapped her hands and squealed excitedly beside him.
"You're amazing!" She gushed, rising to her feet to grab one corner of the large sack at the opening, giving the fabric an energetic shake that caused a glowing ripple through the threads.
Seto jumped to his feet and grabbed his corners too and gave her a mischievous smile, following her excitedly when she ran forward into the meadow, trailing the sack of her head while he lifted his tiny arms up too, attempting to reach her height while they ran with it billowing behind them like a magnificent parachute.
The other children stopped to gape, and Seto paid them no mind as he raced across the grass, his heart soaring as his new friend managed to loop her side over a cluster of particles floating in front of her nose, and their sack slowly began to fill up behind them.
Yami set the book down and watched with interest, his affection for Seto rising when he noticed the child had chosen an anteater half-human as his partner, and together, they had modified the sacks to a large size, making it easier for them to capture stray particles.
"Is that your ward?" A woman's voice rang out breathlessly at his side, and Yami turned to see the anteater child's mother sitting down beside him with a huff. "Sweet boy! What's his name? My stubborn Alisse never wants to play with other kids. I bring her every solar rotation, and this is the first time she's made a friend!"
Yami tried not to stare at the human woman out of politeness, but it was hard, so he gave her a nervous smile and nodded in agreement, "Seto is the same. I'm glad they can get along."
"She doesn't want to play with the other kids because she said they 'hate her' for being half-something, but look at her, getting along with your little elf boy!" The mother continued, sounding extremely happy. "Seto, was it? Did you want to meet them up a few times a week? I'm sure it would be good for them both! How busy are you two? What district are you from?!"
Yami swallowed and broke out into a nervous sweat. Ah… All of these questions were touchy, and Seto wasn't an elf….
"MOMMY! DADDY! Merge my sacks too!" Two mage girls came rushing up the small hill to shove their empty sacks into their parent's laps while they were lounging on a neighboring blanket within earshot. "How come long-nose Alisse can do it, but I can't?"
L-Long nose…Yami winced and the woman beside him bristled with rage.
"Maybe if you two paid attention in your Quantum Magic classes, you'd be able to outscore long-nose Alisse," the mother snapped over her shoulder, and the two mage parents tensed anxiously, ready to defend them.
Sensing a fight, Yami tried to stay out of it by keeping his eyes on Seto, but to his dismay, Seto was surrounded too. The kids were looking hostile with their tiny arms crossed over their chest while they ganged up on him in a tight circle, nearly blocking him from view.
"Hey, halffie," one of the elf boys sneered, stepping into Seto's face to loom over him because he was a bit taller. "You think you're special because you know Quantum Magic even though you're barely 50? Take off your puny apprentice hat and duel me, I dare you!"
Seto gripped the corner of his sack and blinked so rapidly, he saw flashes of red as he willed himself to keep his temper. He was being bullied for several things: his appearance, his age, and his clothes. Perfect. Lovely.
Thankfully, his new friend stepped up to defend him while he was grappling with his anger.
"Leave us alone, Porter. You're just jealous because you're the stupidest elf in this entire district and everyone knows it," the anteater girl snapped, stepping up beside Seto to join their edges together to keep the particles from dispersing, so Seto hastily glanced down seal the fabric together for something to do, lest he lash out, hurt this kid, and ruin his chances of getting Yami to take him to the dungeon.
The elf boy stepped closer to him and shoved him in the chest, making him take a step back, and Seto swallowed thinly, reminding himself he was the adult in this situation.
"I said…" the boy shoved him again, making him take another step back. "Duel me. Show off."
"Leave him alone!" The anteater girl hissed, stepping forward to block the elf boy from touching Seto again. "He'll make you regret it…with-with…an Evil Eye! He knows that spell, I swear! Back off or he'll Evil Eye all of you!"
There was a brief silence before all the boys burst out laughing and pointed at Seto, shrieking with derision.
"Pfft, ahhahaha! This baby knows how to use Evil Eye? Like Professor Lulleed? AS IF!" The kids fell over each other laughing while the beast-headed kids stood fearfully off to the side, watching them with large eyes, looking like they were too scared to say something.
"C'mon, Seto. Let's ditch these losers." The anteater girl grabbed his arm and dragged him off to join the other beast children, who all lowered their heads shyly as they approached.
"This is Seto. He's half-dragon, and you're going to let him merge our sacks together," Alisse said bossily, and the other kids didn't even protest before handing over their mesh bags, some half-full, others still quite empty.
Seto opened his own sack again by unweaving it with a pinch, seeing several clawed hands coming to help hold the edge of the fabric while the other particles were poured into their much larger one. Finally, when the sack was bulging with golden particles, Seto let the children pile the empty sacks into his arms, and he knelt to the ground to find the stray threads to take them apart.
Just as he started unraveling one sack, a heeled boot came crashing down atop his handiwork, and he glanced up in cold fury to see the elf boy sneering over his head again.
Holy shit, could this kid fuck off?!
"You're going to weave mine together first," the boy insisted, tossing his sack on the ground beside Seto's knees, and Seto glared at it in rage, clenching his fists so hard, he could feel his claws digging into his palms.
He was about to lose it on this kid. Would Yami step in if he ended up 'dueling'?
Author's note:
seto struggling to fit in on the playground