[Well, after that fated, meeting happened, I did not notice it at the time, but Ada slowly entered the group of humans that I cherished...]

[Every day, she made an effort to meet up and spar with me, and thereafter she shared food that her grandmother had prepared, with which she convinced me that the reason that she was doing this was because it's least that she could do for troubling me, and that filling our bellies and eating nutritious food is important for our growth.]

[Hence, that's how we became friends, I've just thought of it as her goodwill, and spending time with her is not bad at all-after all, if there is someone who could be my match, it would be her. Which then changed the dynamics on how I improved, because instead of just me doing the teaching most of the time, when we duel, we were both the learner and teacher in our own right, plus the meat and the fruit that she brings along were really fresh.]

"Hey Ada, tell your grandmother that I'm always grateful for the food" Philip said informally, as the two have gotten close enough to talk to each other that way, due to the amount of time that they've spent together.

"I-I haven't really told her anything about me sharing meals together with you! A-And I haven't really told her about you yet." Ada replied with a troubled expression, as she gulped down the soup that she was holding.

Philip was shocked about the news, he had assumed that her grandmother or her parents had already heard about him or had at least gained some form of knowledge about him, because they even bothered to cook his portion of the meal, but he quickly regained his composure since he genuinely enjoyed the food, and had thought that the least he could do was to thank them for it.

"Really? that's a shame, I've loved her cooking ever since day one, especially the seasonings that she adds to the meat, it's just as if was done right to suit my taste!" As Philip smiled while chewing the chicken meat.

Ada blushed at what Philip just said, and replied in an embarrassed tone, "A-Alright, I'll tell my grandma when I have the time..."

Philip felt weird about her reaction and had thought that 'Did I say something weird?'

Honestly, what a dense lad (The narrator commentated)

...

[Ada started to greet me every day, and it would've been fine if those greetings were normal, although there have been times when she would actually just approach me normally, but most of the time she enjoyed playing tricks on me.]

[Because Ada loved playing this game, where she would intentionally hide her presence to catch be my surprise-hahaha... but I'd never let her pull a one over me, I've always been able to detect her presence before she could even approach me. Because once I've already gotten a hold of a scent, it would be registered in my mind forever, although now that I'm thinking about it, that sounds really weird, however I can't really help it, my heightened sense of smell is always almost constantly active.]

[Anyways, I can't say that I did not enjoy it too, I've enjoyed teasing her, it was just really fun to see her wrack her brain, trying to figure out how I could always detect her.]

[Sigh! I've never told her that I was just using my sense of smell, so she kept trying to better her disguise, not realizing that she was going about it in the wrong direction...]

***

"PEEK-A-BOO!" Ada shouted, as she popped out covered in leaves while hanging from one of the tree branches.

However, it did not cause any change in Philip's "As always everything bores me" face, or even any slight hint of his body being surprised by her sudden appearance.

"You know, I have already known that you were there from the beginning, right?" Philip replied in a monotonous voice, as he kept on walking to find a better spot to take his afternoon nap.

Ada then jumped out the tree and began walking besides him, she then replied to him in a childish tone, "Bleeegh! You're no fun!"

Then as they were walking besides each other, Ada came up with a very interesting topic-

"Anyways listen to this Philip! when I was on my way here, I overheard one of the adults talking about a lucky charm-apparently it was an amulet that the previous village chief left behind, it was supposed to be the thing that wards off the beasts outside of our village, but was even more amazing was that I heard that the village chief who created that amulet, was the same guy on the stone statue that was in the middle of our plaza!"

"Alright, keep on going" Philip replied in a somewhat interested tone.

Ada then asked Philip in an astonished tone of voice, confounded by his lack of expression on the sudden bomb of plot twist and revelations that she just said, "Don't tell me you don't know that guy?!"

Philip just looked at her with the expression that can be summarized in one word, "HUH?!"

"You know! that guy, the one our village worships and celebrates the most, the one considered to be the very hero of our town, because without him this village wouldn't have existed, the very first and last guy to awaken barrier magic, Lord Byron!" As Ada spoke in a suspenseful tone to make her story sound more compelling to Philip.

Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

"I-I see" Philip spoke in hesitance, as he was flabbergasted at how passionate Ada is at her storytelling.

"Since the adults rarely talks about this and all they tell us and the outsiders was the fact that Lord Byron awakened barrier magic, so we would all assume that the reason for our village being protected to this day was also his barrier magic. We were only supposed to hear this story once we turned eighteen and only once when we decided to stay in this village for good, but even then, the village chief has got to trust you enough." As Ada suddenly turned into one of those important NPC's so that she can reveal such a crucial piece of information that will probably be integral to the story later on.

Ada then asked Philip in an inviting tone and as always, with a smile on her face, every time they do something dubious "So, wanna confirm the rumors with me?"

Philip was in, but he wanted to get more details about her plan, "Then first, have you found out where the amulet is located?"

Ada then replied in a proud voice, "Yes! I thought you would ask about this, I heard the amulet is located in the village chief's home, right inside his secret basement..."

After discussing her plans with Philip for about half an hour, as the two of them did not notice the time, Ada left in a hurry, still, she never forgets to wave back at Philip-

"let's meet up back here later at midnight!" Ada ran as fast as she could, while the sun was almost setting.

'Is that really true? Such an item that provides luck could not actually exist-Right?' Philip thought to himself as Ada ran into the sunset.

Later that night...

Right before Philip was about to jump out from the window of his home, his conscience began surfacing as he pushed it aside earlier, he was feeling really guilty about this, because this would be the very first action that he would take, that went up against his parents' words, and he's even doing it secretly at that.

But nevertheless, after walking back and forth, in consideration for Ada's feelings whom he already agreed to go with, and as his curiosity got to the best of him-

he still went out...

Philip then moved about sneakily through the roofs of the houses of his neighbors to avoid those villagers who had been tasked to patrol this time. although normally if one were to plan on sneaking out, the alleyways would be a better choice, while the roofs would be a bad choice since those patrolling in different areas will all be able to see you from different angles, plus the jumping around will also make a lot of noises, instead of in the alleyways where you could only just run into them one by one.

But it wasn't much of a trouble for Philip, considering his physicality, because one, he was fast enough to not be caught by naked eye, and two, the fast yet silent tap of his feet on the brick surface didn't even resonate the slightest hint of sound, even though it was one of the worst footings to travel silently on, as his feet almost never touched the ground, his airtime was just that high every time he runs.

Tap-Tap-Tap

In fact, Philip probably could arrive at their meeting place faster if he had tried harder, but he just ran at the pace that he was most comfortable with.

Tap-Tap-Tap

...

Till finally, under the darkness where the moonlight basks, in revel of the stars above, there she was waiting for him-

But how could she have arrived there first? When he was absolutely certain that she was slower than him? It was something that Philip wondered upon landing from the sky-

"Hi! Philip" Ada waved at him with a smile on her face.

Philip then greeted her back with a stiff "Yo."

Thus. after their rendezvous, they headed east, the direction of where the humble abode of their current village chief is, this time Philip had to go a little bit slower, as to not leave Ada behind-

Whoosh! Whoosh!

Then as they arrived at their destination, the two decided to land outside of the gate or more specifically the fences of the farmlands that the Village Chief owns, where they then easily jumped over it with ease, not even breaking a sweat-

"Hap!"

"Hap!"

Whoosh!

Swoosh!

After sneaking through, what they saw Inside was just too grand for their measly eyes who have yet to experience the true luxuries of this world, no matter how much they've look at it, they couldn't hide their amazement of the three-story mansion that the village chief owned, as every house in the village except this one are all either two story tall or just one story tall.

But they couldn't get distracted by just this, they needed to accomplish their goal of seeing the amulet, so both their face went from astonished to as what the new generation would call it, E-Ehem! don't cringe from this "Locked in!" (The boomer narrator narrated.)

...

As they approached the mansion, the wet muds and fertilizers surrounded them, so they had to tread very carefully as to not leave any footprints behind, because even though there was a stone path leading to the door of the mansion, it was obvious that it would be locked, which only meant one thing, they needed to get behind the house and enter through the windows, similar to how they both sneaked out their homes-

"Then let's open the windows" Ada said in a very quiet tone of voice.

Ada then began using her wind mana to manipulate the air around them and to open the lock that was inside the window-

Swish! Swish!

Which Ada did not have much trouble with, as all the mechanism of the lock was just a metal hook and a hole in the wall, to put it simply it was an outdated design not meant to protect from magic casters-

Flick!

Upon unlocking the window ever so slightly, just enough so that their body could fit, the two then began crawling into the gaps to enter the house, after which they heard the loud snoring of the village chief, and from that point they were lucky that he had a normal sleep schedule and that he is not the type who likes to remain awake at night-

"Zzzzzzz!"

But here, came the real problem; after thoroughly searching and inspecting the entire mansion for about an hour and a half, they were not able to find anything, not even a clue, so as they were both almost at the same level of intellect, their hunch ever since they entered became more and more certain that the secret basement has got to be inside the Village Chief's room where he was sleeping, which meant that they had to sneak inside, all the while not disturbing his sleep.

But this is a lot harder than it looks, first, there was the fact that were no windows or even any slight gaps to pass through, only the wooden door in front of them was the way in, plus there was the fact that should they try risking it, by opening the door, there might be a trap, or worse the door might creek causing the Village Chief to wake up, and confront them, exposing their real identities in the process-

"Zzzzzzz!"

But they were already there, so Philip being the fastest to be able to run while he opens the door, grabbed the knob and very slowly inched it open-

Creeeeek!

However, even if he did open it really carefully, the wooden door still shrieked in a short and high pitch manner, and for a moment the village chiefs snoring stopped, which left both of them frozen with a shocked expression on their faces.