“Take me,” Jirot said, pointing out of the shared estate, while her grandmother wiped the porridge around her lips.

“Where do you wish to go?” Sonarot asked the girl, brushing a hand through her hair, before fixing the hair pin.

“I go see nano now.”

“Nano is gone.”

“Gone?”

“She has gone to help.”

“Help? I help too. I gone now.” Jirot hoisted herself up with the grunt of an old man. “Hoi hoi hoi.”

“You cannot, you must stay.” Sonarot smiled, pulling the girl onto her lap, planting a tender kiss on her forehead. She hoisted the girl’s brother too, pulling him in for a gentle kiss too, embracing the pair within her bosom.

“I go play with babo,” Jirot said, trying to pull away from her grandmother.

“You cannot. Babo is looking after Larot.”

“Why?”

“He is sick?”

“Why?”

“He is sick because sometimes children grow sick.” Sonarot trailed a finger around the girl’s leafshaped ear, causing the girl to squirm and giggle. “Do you wish to play with me today?”

Jirot’s ears twitched, and the girl narrowed her eyes slightly. Her lips formed the shape for the word, but the girl paused, wondering if she should chance it. She smirked playfully before cackling and tried to squirm away from her grandmother, who gave up instantly to allow the girl to flee from her.

“No!” Jirot declared giggly wildly, with little Jarot also cackling and clapping beside her, before the pair hid behind one of their other nanas.

“Larot?” Karot asked, his silver eyes staring up at his grandmother expectantly.

“Larot is sick.”

“Sick…” The boy pouted.

Sonarot reached down and rubbed the top of his head. “He will be healthy again soon.”

“Soon?”

“Yes,” Sonarot assured, tickling his leafshaped ears, before the boy rested his cheek against her palm, still pouting, but growing sleepy with the noonval sun all over him.

While his children caused trouble within the Iyr, Adam found himself troubled, hundreds of miles away. The thunder rumbled, and lightning fell.

“What the hell, Dunes. Didn’t you tell me this place was the land of sun and sand?”

“We will not be able to leave today,” Jurot said, cleaning up the newly bought spears, wrapping them in the long cloth he had procured at the same time.

“First the cart and now this…” Adam’s heart ached, letting out a soft sigh, the storm within his heart filling him with greater nerves. ‘Isn’t there anything I can do?’

[No.]

‘Come on, Bell. There must be some kind of, I don’t know, a spell or something.’

[You do not have enough Experience.]

‘I can’t go around killing when Vonda’s a follower of Mother Soza. She’s a Ray, Bell, a Ray!’

[…]

‘I liked you better when you were a floating baby.’

[…]

Adam inhaled deeply, recalling why he didn’t speak to Bell. ‘You know, even if you are the personification of my System, you shouldn’t bully me this much.’

[…]

‘Oh, what, wyvern got your tongue?’

Adam relaxed in the corner of a gathering room, forced out by Vonda and Kitool for being too broody. He bit into the rice dish slowly, sipping the goat milk with his meal. He kept his eyes on the disappearing meal beneath him, slowing as his meal grew colder.

“A storm so early in noonval?” Jaygak said, sipping her goat milk, pretending as though she wasn’t eyeing up Adam for his reaction. “It’s an ill omen.”

“That’s too far, even for you.”

“You’re surrounded by Iyrmen, so it’s a good omen.”

“Yeah? How’s that?”

“A storm in noonval is the best time to kill,” Jaygak poured Adam more goat milk, while the half elf raised his brows threateningly, though while in the temple, Adam couldn’t do anything to her. “It’s going to be okay, Adam.”

“Yeah…”

“I would be worried if it was someone else, but since it’s your child, and the child of a Ray, it will be fine.”

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it

“If I wasn’t surrounded by you guys, I probably wouldn’t be so chipper.”

“Chipper?”

“Uh, you know, light, happy.”

“You’re happy?”

“No, but I’d be even more down if you weren’t around.”

“You trust us that much?”

“Of course. If I can’t trust you, who can I trust? I only asked Jurot and Kitool to look over Vonda because they’re better unarmoured while on a ship.”

“So you can think that far ahead?”

“I only pretend to be stupid, most of the time…”

Jaygak slowly nodded her head, smirking slightly. She glanced to the side for a moment as she fell into thought. “Taygak is growing well.”

“Are you trying to annoy me?” Adam asked, sipping his goat milk, tasting the sourness against his tongue.

“She’ll soon step out to explore, like this.”

“Yeah.”

“Once she steps out of the Iyr, she will lose its protection.”

Adam recalled Tonagek and the story of his outing with his son. “Yeah…”

“If she dies, the Iyr will say she died with honour.” Jaygak sipped her her goat milk, and Adam tasted a greater sourness within his own. “Taygak is a good girl. She’ll help the Gak family rise.”

“Definitely.

“Adam?”

“Yeah?”

“Will you allow her to join the company?”

“Didn’t I say it already?”

“I need to hear it again.”

“Of course she can join the business.”

“I’ll speak with her.”

“I don’t want to force her to join.”

“I will.”

“Why?”

“I want her to grow strong enough so that she can travel by herself. For Iyrmen like us, the world is more dangerous. In Aldland, Iyrmen that look like us, we’re greater targets. In Aswadasad, it depends on the relations between the devilkin and the humans. Sometimes it’s good, sometimes…”

“Sometimes they slaughter them to get rid of the root of all evil,” Adam pulled away from his meal.

Their food grew colder in the silence that passed between them.

“I have been thinking about marriage,” Jaygak admitted.

“You have?” Adam asked, unable to control the shock in his voice.

Jaygak slowly nodded her head. “I’d like for them to have horns.”

“Obviously.” Adam chuckled, sipping the rest of his goat milk, before pouring the cool milk for the pair of them again.

“My children will be the cutest.”

“Of course.”

“I won’t be a great mother, so I’ll need Kitool’s help.”

“I don’t know. I think you’ll make a decent mother.”

Jaygak furrowed her brows towards the half elf, and for once, Jaygak’s eyes held a doubt for Adam, though there was the tiniest gleam of mischief.

“Decent, you know, not the best mother ever,” Adam joked, sipping his milk again. “Say what you want, your heart’s in the right place.”

“No. I’m almost as stupid as you.”

“Almost,” Adam replied, too eagerly, not catching the point.

“Will you help the other children too? Turot, Katool, Damokan and Kalokan.”

“I already promised the twins, and the others? If they want my help, they’ll have it, though I’m not sure how the Iyr will feel with me helping their future Elder Peace.”

Jaygak bowed her head lightly, before raising her cup, tapping it against Adam’s own. “What of Lanarot?”

“Obviously I’m helping her.”

“What do you want her to be when she is older?”

“Happy.”

“Do you want her to fight?”

“No.”

“She is a Rot.”

“That she is.”

Jaygak continued to smile, before Adam cast magic on his meal to warm it up, offering the same to Jaygak, who bowed her head. “Jirot and Jarot, they’re cute too, even if they don’t have horns.”

“Don’t go bullying my cute twins just because they don’t have horns,” Adam replied, letting out an awkward sigh. “It was already hard enough when Jirot stabbed me in the heart last year.”

Jaygak smiled, recalling the trouble the girl had made last year when she thought she wasn’t her father’s daughter. “She truly is your daughter.”

“Only my kid can be so cute.”

“Only your kid can cause so much trouble.”

“I thought it was because they were their greatfather’s greatchildren.”

“Your grandfather does like to cause a mess.”

“Whose grandfather?” Adam replied, having only just realised how easily the words flowed out of his lips without even a thought. “What about Kavgak and Maygak?”

“They’re so cute. Kavgak’s already so big.”

“So chonky,” Adam agreed.

“Maygak’s growing so big too. They’re growing larger than me at their age, though that’s not much to say since I was always so sick as a child. If I had been born in Aswadasad, they might have killed me.”

“What?”

“If I had been born in Aldland, they certainly would have killed me, unless I was a member of the Yellow Turbans.”

“Don’t talk about stuff like that.”

“Sorry.” Jaygak smiled awkwardly, returning back to her rice meal. “Kavgak is such a good girl. Raygak sometimes causes trouble, but Kavgak, she’s too sweet. Even though she’s so resistant to my adoration, she always let me adore her in the end. Maygak, she’s…”

“She’s a cheeky little brat, crawling right as we left,” Adam grumbled, causing Jaygak to laugh. “Seriously, how could she wait until right as we left the Main Iyr to decide to crawl? Couldn’t she at least crawl in front of me so I could steal her away?”

Jaygak continued to laugh, thinking of her youngest sister, who was certainly her sister with how much she troubled Adam. “My sisters are the cutest.”

“Yeah.”

“I… don’t want to embarrass them.”

“You won’t, you can’t.”

“I’ll become stronger too. I’ll become a Master.”

“Not a Paragon?”

Jaygak smiled, raising her cup again, and the pair drank their milk together. “A Master is good enough to pave the way for them.”

“I’ll pave the way for you, just become a Paragon. I need to make sure you’re at least as strong as Nobby, otherwise Kavgak and Maygak will bully me for not helping you as much.”

“I’ll make sure they bully you a lot.”

“You’ll need to be at least a Paragon for that.”

“Then I may have to become a Paragon,” Jaygak admitted, thinking about how it would feel. She, Jaygak, could become a Paragon?

‘I need to pretty much double, maybe triple my XP too…’ Adam thought, glancing to the side.

XP Required: 32 000

XP Penalty: 100%

‘Come on, I became Level 7 a whole year ago, even more than that!’

[…]

“Jaygak, let’s say someone’s aiming to become a Paragon, how old would they be if… say if they’re like the Order of the Wings, they can, I think, allow their allies to be more ready for battle, right?”

“Such an ability would come between Expert and Master…” Jaygak thought for a long moment, trying to recall the rough age. “I’m not sure of their abilities in particular, but I am now greater at certain physical tasks than I used to be. I’m also able to jump further than before. If I was extremely talented, I would have gained this strength when I was in my late twenties. I should have gained these abilities in my mid thirties.”

“Oh,” Adam replied, slowly nodding his head. “Wow. So we’re pretty young considering we’re this… powerful?”

“Yes,” Jaygak replied, almost exasperated by Adam’s lack of common sense.

“Cool.” ‘I guess I need to stay at this level for a few years, then? Damn…’

The storm kept the group within the city for the next day, before they finally set out, still lacking a cart. Adam was glad the Prince carried with him a ring which tapped into another spatial realm to allow them to carry more than they otherwise could. The large ship carried the group from the capital of Western Aswadasad to a nearby outpost over the course of the entire day’s travel, the group arriving nearby the outpost during the next dawn.

‘Damn it,’ Adam thought, his eyes glued to the sky, towards the green scaled winged figure. “Jaygak?”

“It must be Gordoleaf.”

“Who?”

“The green dragon which watches over the Tribesfolk in this area,” Jaygak said, her eyes falling across the outpost. “They were once neutral to Aswadasad, but after the civil war, they must have formed a greater connection with the Tribesfolk.”

“So are we going to be okay?”

Jaygak glanced towards where she heard the crackle of lightning, as Karza grinned wildly, crossing her arms as she waited for the green dragon approach. “We will be fine.”