Time passes by as the group moves to a nearby stream pointed out by Felice. There, they relax for a bit.
As they arrive, Felice asks Eirene and her children to clean themselves by the stream, while she’ll look for some clothes they can wear in place of their worn-out ones.
With a flick of a finger, Felice changes into her petite form. She puts down her huge backpack on the ground and begins looking for clothes that Eirene, Xion, and Nora could wear.
While Felice rummages through her backpack, Silfy and Mimir chat on the side on a rock, exchanging information with one another. Haiko still in the arms of Nora who sits on rock nearby the stream. Together they watch as Xion and Eirene clean themselves up, by scooping up the water from the stream and using it to remove the dirt and grime all over themselves.
Haiko enjoys the peaceful scene as he hears the sound of leaves rustling in the wind accompanied by the soothing sound of water flowing by in the stream.
With all the peacefulness and stillness, Nora fell asleep while sitting. Nesting her small head on top of Haiko.
Eirene breaks the silence as she removes her armour and lay it on a rock, creating the sound of clanking metal, “Apologies… but we haven’t had the time to fully acquaint ourselves, have we?” she says to Haiko while removing the last piece of her armour.
Haiko, a bit drowsy, looks at Eirene with her upper amour stripped and now only wearing a ripped thin black gambeson, “Now that you mention it… I guess we haven’t…”
But before Haiko could introduce himself. Mimir floats near Haiko with Silfy riding on top of him and interrupts him with a prompt;
[https://novelup.plus/uploads/403403224/1592160772.png]
As Haiko sees Mimir with Silfy riding on top of him. Haiko looks at Mimir blankly and thought to himself, why can Silfy ride Mimir but he gets batted off and why is his lifestyle set as questionable. To which he just keeps to himself.
Mimir speaks as he shows the prompt, “His name is ZERO. And please, do call me Mimir your majesty” Mimir says with a bow, by slightly tilting his body forward.
Haiko jolts at what Mimir said about his name and what he called Eirene, “Hey, hold up! That’s not my name!” Haiko waves his small hands in frustration at Mimir.
Haiko quickly looks at Eirene who’s looking confused, “*ehem* Don’t mind him. Please, call me Haiko! Your… majesty…?” Haiko says loosely as he was lost on what to call Eirene.
Eirene gleams while Xion chuckles, “Please, call me Eirene” Eirene says to Mimir and Haiko. Eirene then bows to the both of them, “I give you my deepest gratitude for saving Xion and Nora, as well as myself. Mimir and…” she then straightens herself, “Haiko…? Or… is it Zero…?” she says looking at the prompt by Mimir.
“Haiko, Zero… can’t you just pick one?” Xion says to Haiko looking a bit confused as what to call him.
“…Just Haiko is fine!” Haiko says warmly.
Mimir on the other hand says otherwise. Mimir looks at Haiko questioningly, “But that is not your real name? I highly suggest that it would be best if we let them call you by your real name” Mimir says to Haiko persistently.
Silfy then speaks on top of Mimir, “It was also my suggestion Haiko, as it would benefit you the most would it not?” Silfy tilts her head as she says to Haiko.
Haiko then remembers the bond system that he has. Haiko sighs and scratches his head, “I guess so…”
Xion looks at the prompt of Haiko’s name, “If you don’t like your name, why not just change it?” he says looking at Haiko wonderingly.
Haiko then looks at Mimir, “…Yeah? Why didn’t you just change it in the first place Mimir?”
Mimir lightly shook his body in denial, “We cannot,” Mimir then points to Xion, Nora, and Eirene, “But I presume they can”
Haiko, Eirene, and Xion, look at Mimir dumbfoundedly as to what he just said.
Mimir then explains, “It seemed that the Overseer has allowed you to be named by them” He says nonchalantly.
Eirene looks at Mimir curiously, “…Overseer?” but seemingly ignored by Mimir.
Haiko sighs in relief thinking that he could just ask Eirene or Xion to change his name to be actually set as ‘Haiko’.
Xion ponders to himself, “So… we can name you whatever we want?” he says with playful look on his face while looking at the prompt.
Haiko looks at Xion nervously, “H-hey...!”
Xion then speaks of a name, “Ponzo…?” as he says, the prompt that displayed Haiko’s name changes to Ponzo.
“Hey! Don’t go messing up my name! just set it as Haiko would you!” Haiko now Ponzo waves his hand in frustration to Xion.
Xion shrugs, “Haiko’s too plain, I think, a different name would suit you better!” Xion chuckles as he mentions another name, “Nir?” again as he says the prompt changes Haiko’s name, from Ponzo to Nir.
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Haiko now Nir, desperately pleads to Xion to just call him by what he prefers.
Eirene chuckles at the sight while still thinking about what Mimir said, “…Overseer” she murmurs to herself.
With all the commotion and noise, Nora finally wakes up. She looks at Xion laughing and enjoying himself while teasing Haiko now currently named Ovo.
Nora meekly yawns, making Haiko, currently named as Sezen, notice her. “Ah! Sorry to wake you up Nora…” he says warmly to Nora.
Eirene sees Nora wake up and smiles at her, “How about you Nora, what do you think should our saviour be named as?” she says as Xion continues mentioning names to his delight.
Nora and Haiko, currently named as Bubo, look at each other. Nora lifts Haiko up at her face level, she tilts her head looking at Haiko with her blue teal eyes. Then with a blank and serious look she says straight to his face, “Eiziest…”
The prompt showing the name of Haiko’s, now and forever Eiziest, lights up as it changes;
[https://novelup.plus/uploads/403403224/1592160778.png]
Eirene gleams as she hears what her daughter Nora says, while her son, Xion, sighs.
“Why not just go with the original, Eivinze?” Xion looks at the prompt expecting it to change, but it still says Eiziest.
Xion looks at Mimir, “Why didn’t it change?”
“I presume, due to Nora having a higher bond with Eiziest” Mimir says as he looks at Nora yawning and nesting her head on top of Eiziest once again, which he just sighs in response.
Eiziest looks at his new name shown by the prompt, “…Eiziest? What does that mean?” he says as he looks at Eirene hoping she could answer.
Eirene smiles at Eiziest, “It comes from Nora’s favourite book titled Eivinze, which means The light that guides us in the dark. But Nora prefers to call it Eiziest though to reasons she keeps to herself” Eirene says to Eiziest with a shrug at the end.
Eiziest ponders for a moment, “I see… Eiziest…” he remembers what the overseer said about having a new name in a new world. “…I think I’ll keep it!” Eiziest gleams at Eirene and Xion.
Mimir looks at everyone and having them fully decided with the name, he then returns his drone to him.
Eiziest then looks at Eirene, “Can I ask, but what exactly happened to you guys? How did you end up all wounded like that?” he says looking at the battered armour laying on a rock.
Xion looks at Eirene nervously, but Eirene smile at him, “It’s fine”
Eirene then proceeds to tell Eiziest the gist of how things went down. A few days ago, someone attacked their home. Eirene mentions a cult lead by a sadistic twisted man who organized the attack but wasn’t there when it happened, making Eirene calling him a coward.
At first, they made a surprise entrance at the gates attacking aimlessly, “We thought they were just people from the cult wanting to provoke us” Eirene says with a sigh. “But when I left Nora and Xion at my room to help their father. The moment I was walking down the hallway. I then heard Xion yelling, I ran towards their room and saw Xion and Nora bounded with some kind of dark string coming from a hooded Masked Woman, who came and tried taking them away to a portal she created” Eirene says this as she clutches her hand in frustration remembering it.
“I presumed that Masked Woman didn’t expect me to come as I heard her click her tongue as she saw me” Eirene says with a shrug. Eirene then explains, as Nora and Xion were being dragged off by the Masked Woman, Eirene jumped and grabbed them as they all went into the portal. “The next thing I knew was we were somewhere in a forest to what I presume is in Midora. Strangest yet, was I saw myself standing in front of me with Xion and Nora at her back!” Eirene says while crossing her arms.
“That Masked Woman had the gall to disguise herself as me!” Eirene says with annoyance. But a second later her demeanour changes as she caresses her son, Xion’s head, “But I knew with one look, Xion and Nora would know the real one. Ain’t that right dear?” she says with a warm smile at Xion.
Xion not looking at his mother nervously says, “Y-yes… absolutely m-mother!”
Xion looks at Nora for help but she already went back to sleep.
Eirene then continues, “After that we ran for few days, avoiding everyone as much as we can as we do not know who to trust” Eirene sighs, “three days ago, we tried trusting this sweet old woman who lent us a place to rest. But to our surprise, she was just the Masked Woman in disguise. It was what I thought before she teleported us somewhere underground where there where more than one masked woman” Eirene puts a hand on the hilt of her sword, “I presumed the real Masked Woman was not present since none of the ones I fought held the same presence of strength as she did. I was already badly injured as we ran through the tunnels looking for a way out” Eirene then crosses her arms, “That’s when we saw a portal and took a risk to jump in it, as we did I made sure to destroy it as we left. To which lead us to that stone area earlier” she says with a sigh.
“We tried running as far as we can, but I was too weak to go on. As I collapse, I asked Xion and Nora to run. That last thing I saw was another one of those copies pushing them back to the portal area” Eirene says with frustration. Then she sighs, “Then you came and helped us” she says with a smile, “Thank you again Eiziest, Mimir, and Felice” she says looking at Felice walking towards them.
Felice warmly smiles, “Thank me when we get you back home Queensy!” she says with a chuckle.
Eiziest looks at Felice, “Guess that’s the plan!” he says excitedly, “But, where are we going to anyway?” Eiziest asks Felice.
Felice looks at Eiziest, “Eiziest now right?” to which Eiziest gives a thumbs up. Felice smiles, “To Aéthea!” she says with vigour, “Come on Queensy, let’s get you guys something else to wear!” Felice says to Eirene, while leaving Eiziest shocked.
Mimir looks at Eiziest, “Did you not know? It was fairly obvious” he says with a sigh.
“I really didn’t think about it…” Eiziest wryly chuckles.
/=/ /=/ /=/ /=/ /=/ /=/ /=/ /=/ /=/
Some time passes as Eirene, Xion, and Nora changed their attire into something simple and gave their worn-out ones to Felice.
Eirene tied up her hair into a ponytail and wore a long sleeve polo inside, while putting on a sleeveless brown leather jacket on top of it. Below, she chose to wear leather pants with her sword holstered to her waist.
Xion chose to wear clothes similar to Felice as they where the same height, difference was he didn’t wear a long coat like Felice but a short dark blue cape around his shoulders.
Nora went with Eirene and Felice's suggestions as she did not want to be bothered to pick. Nora wore a one-piece light blue dress with a sweater or jacket, made of what Eiziest thinks is cotton to how soft it is.
As the sun begins to set, Eiziest now in his 2nd form. This time he’s carrying Nora on his shoulders. Mimir as always floats at his side doing something no one can understand. Eirene and Xion walked together as Felice leads the way back to the village, with Silfy on top of her bag.
Eiziest explained along the way how he can change forms, and mainly sticks to his smaller form as to have less eyes on him. While Felice enlightened them with who Eiziest is and how he can be trusted, and told them the need to keep his powers hidden. Both Eiziest and Felice decided it would be best to explain everything clearly with Vilo about Eiziest powers.
Moments later as the moon begins to rise. While Felice, Eirene, and Xion are chatting at the front, Eiziest ask something to Mimir as they walk, “Hey, I forgot to ask. But what powers did I get from that clone?”
Mimir looks at Eiziest as he stops what he was doing, “Not much, as to the reason why I didn’t bother to show” he says nonchalantly, “Do you still want to see?”
Eiziest replies with a thumbs up and an excited look, to which Mimir then prompts in front of Eiziest;
[https://novelup.plus/uploads/403403224/1592160784.png]
Eiziest looks at his new skills, “Only two?” then his demeanour change into excitement as he sees his special skill, “Shape-shift?!” Eiziest looks at Mimir, “Hey! Can I use that to change what I look like?”
Mimir returns his drone that prompted and ponders, “Give me some time as I set it up” as he again begins to make himself busy.
Eiziest fist bumps the air in excitement, but also being careful not to drop or wake up Nora who again is sleeping on top of Eiziest. “Make sure too make me look good!” he says with a low voice.
“Do you not want to look like your original self?” Mimir looks at Eiziest with a projected question mark on top of his head.
Eiziest gleams, “New world, new name, and definitely a new body! But make sure to at least keep my old body build” he says with a grin.
Mimir nods as he sees for a moment Nora’s eyes lightly opens, looking at him, “Hmm…”
At the front, Felice is talking to Eirene as they continue to walk, “…So, it would be best if I put a spell on you guys to only let people who actually know you see you; don’t you think?” Felice says to Eirene.
Before Eirene could reply, Eiziest catches up to them to join-in in their conversation, “Like how my cloak works right?”
Felice smiles while looking forward, “Speaking of which…” Felice looks at Nora, “I suggested to Eirene, about making Nora be the one acting as your summoner!”
Eirene smiles, “I have no issues with that”
“Won’t that cause some issues with the people who think I’m your familiar?” Eiziest says looking at Felice questioningly.
Felice shrugs, “Meh, I’ll just say I was borrowing you for a while to see how good you are as a familiar”
Eiziest sighs, then looks at Nora if she would agree. To his surprise even though Nora looks asleep, she’s giving Felice a thumbs up.
Eiziest chuckles, “Well, I don’t mind” he then looks at Eirene and Felice, “When do we plan on leaving?”
Felice projects a map of Midora as she ponders, “It’ll be a long journey. I suggest we pack up some things we need and go on the second day” she says as she looks at Eirene if she would agree.
Eirene nods and smiles in reply, “It would be best to get some proper rest before we go”
Felice and Eiziest smile, “Best we ask Vilo to prepare something for the trip then!” Felice childishly says.