Ever since that incident he saw the world in a different color. He realized that the world wasn't black or white, but rather, it was gray. Everything in the world was grey, and it was up to him how to see things, he was only one that could color his world.
He remembered that she would always see the world with a smile, and so he wondered just how brightly she saw the world. She didn't seem to feel her own pain as she never frowned, but for others, even as she smiled tears would fall when faced with the pains and sadness of other people. It was utterly illogical, and she, was utterly hopeless. Still, in the end, it turned out that he was the one who was actually hopeless.
And in her final moments, as she died by his hand, she gave him his final gift... a heart.
That day he promised to take the burden she held, so he smiled, even as the world burned.
= 0 = 0 = 0 =
"It's quite the beautiful day, hmm~ too bad master isn't here to enjoy it with me," she sighed, a tinge of disappointment attached to the end of her words.
The sun was just about to rise, peeking from just below the mountains, covering the earth in its gentle light. She sat down the edge of a cliff, her feet dangling below, kicking lightly. She was overlooking the entire forest with hundreds of miles worth of lush greenery, it was simply nature's beauty in all majestic glory.
She had always used to watch the sunrise with her master, but today he needed to go somewhere urgently, leaving the shop to Auntie, but she was a really heavy sleeper and wasn't all that interested with the sunrise, and then there was everyone else at the shop, but all of them were really busy. And so now, she felt somewhat lonely. 'Mmm... if only I had a friend to watch the sunrise with...'
*Boom!*
A loud explosion suddenly came from behind her, almost as if something fell from the sky, causing her to jump in surprise.
Quickly turnings her head to look behind, she saw something---or rather, someone, with half his body lodged into the ground. Smoke was even moving upwards from the newly created crater.
Little black bat-like wings popped out of her back, fluttering into life as it carried her small slender body into the air. Cautiously, she slowly flew closer towards the crater, a long black slender tail with a spade shaped tip wagging curiously behind her.
"Hmm~?" She carefully peeked down into the half a meter long crater. 'Just as I thought, it really is a person! Is he okay though?'
Seeing that the person wasn't moving, she decided it to be safe to get closer.
Grabbing the person by his legs, she mustered her strength and started uprootin---pulling him out of the earth.
"Oooohhh!!! You're reeeally heavy!!!" she said whilst she pulled with all her strength, her wings flapping faster and faster in reverse, but somehow, the person didn't budge a bit.
Letting go of the person's legs, she landed back on the ground and sat down crossed legged. She took a moment to regain her breath.
Standing back up, she lifted her long sleeves up her shoulders. "Hmph! I won't let some human mole rat defeat me!" she said, her spirit all fired up as she imbued her body with mana. "With this, I'll even be able to carry a bear with ease!"
This time she used two hands and pulled on only one leg. Her teeth was clenched as she strained her muscles, sweat pouring down her face. "Oryaaa!!!" after making a weird sounding battlecry, the mana inside her body increased for an instant as she did a single powerful pull.
Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.
Falling to the ground exhausted, she looked above and saw the person flying trough the air. He had a good 5 seconds of air time before crashing into a huge tree that partially turned into splinters.
"Oh no..."
At this point she was wondering if he was even alive, well now that she though about it, what were even the chances of him being alive if he had actually fallen from the sky. 'Then again, master really isn't so different, maybe they're related?' she thought, watching the person, once lodged into the ground, now lodged into a tree trunk without any hint of movement.
Just to make sure, she flew towards the person pinned into the body of a huge tree that almost seemed like it would topple over at any moment.
Rubbing her chin with an eyebrow raised she inspected the boy in front of her. She imbued her dark blue eyes with mana as she activated [Appraisal], causing them to give off a light glow.
"Hmm..."
She watched as a semitransparent status screen appeared in her vision.
[Name: Sirus / Age: - / Gender: Male / Race: -]
[Level: -]
[Stats: -]
[Skills: -]
[Status Effects: -]
Surprised at the lack of contents she deactivated the skill. She found it strange that despite having [Appraisal] at level 9, just one level before complete mastery, most of the boy---Sirus' description stayed hidden. He must have been strong, well considering he hasn't straight up corpse-ified from all that had happened on the last few minutes, must mean he at least has exceptional durabili---endurance.
But then on the bright side...
'He looks pretty cute, just like how Auntie likes them. She always complained about the lack of lover's in her life, maybe this will cheer her up. He looks pretty sturdy too, so win, win!" she thought, throwing her fist into the air while complimenting herself for her own ingenuity.
Then, she realized the standing problem. 'How do I get him out of here?'
Snapping her fingers in realization, she beamed, a subtle "Aha!" left her lips as she grabbed the whistle on her neck.
The whistle, made from special metal, it had the name 'Miniria' engraved on it as proof of ownership. It was the whistle that her master made for her.
'I'm supposed to use this to call Sylvie, but would she really come? She usually sleeps during this time of day, and any other time really, can one really live by sleep alone?' sighing she shook her head. 'Well... it's worth a try.'
Blowing on the whistle, a sharp sound rings out into the surroundings.
"..."
After a few moments, she realized a small glint in the sky.
It became bigger, and bigger, and bigger, until...
*Boom!*
A huge suit of silver armor shot down from the sky like a meteor in front of her, dragging along the earth before losing momentum, creating a long line of plowed dirt.
Miniria---or rather, Mia, stood still, seemingly in a daze, before hurriedly running towards the suit of armor.
Realizing that the suit of armor wasn't moving and was dented and dirty all over, she put her hands over it. Casting both [Repair] and [Clean], she watched as the armor stood up from the ground, looking as if it was brand new.
The suit of armor, now standing on two feet, seemed to have realized that his helmet was facing the wrong way and twisted it back into place. It looked at her with two blue glowing lights under the visor to substitute as eyes. "Lady Miniria, I was thro---sent here by that bit---sloth demon, saying you needed help, is that true?" asked the suit of armor, its voice seemed aggravated midway, but then immediately returned to it's normal respectful manner of speech, holding in any vulgar language.
"Albert, I already told you to call me Mia, Lady Miniria is just way too long," she said crossing her arms.
"Oh, please forgive me for forgetting, La---Mia," replied the suit of armor in an apologetic tone, it seemed like it could have bent over and lowered it's head in apology if it didn't lack the proper joints.
Smiling in satisfaction, Mia looked over at the boy that was stuck inside the trunk of a tree and pointed. "I need to get him to Auntie."
She watched as the suit of armor rubbed his non-existent chin while he seemed to size-up the boy she pointed at. "Indeed, he looks like just the type Lady Kathleen would want, his left eye might pose a problem, but otherwise, he fits the criteria, 9/10 points."
She simply replied with an "Mm..." as she nodded her head in agreement.
The suit of armor started walking towards the boy. Rubbing both his gauntlets together he got down tugged at the boy's legs.
"HhUUuuuUUUuuRRrrrGGggg!!!" the suit of armor grunted as he pulled back, his metal sabatons digging into the ground, and then---"SON OF A BI---...u-uncultured mother..."
Mia watched as the suit of armor nearly let out a curse as gauntlets were ripped off, still attached to the boy's legs---his body still hadn't moved an inch.
'This is going to take a while...' she thought as she listened to the suit of armor's stifled curses.