“How did you know about Leo?” She couldn’t help but ask. The only time she had seen someone communicate with Leo was when they were dying. She stopped herself from panicking because the old man had always been a bit mysterious.
With a frown, he couldn’t help but speak a bit helplessly, “I know you’re curious about many things involved with him. But it's too early. Remember the experience you told me about, back in Green River you experienced an event you tried to glaze over like it was nothing.” With that he paused meaningfully. Clarifying, “I am not trying to probe. I am guessing Leo noticed something and bought it up. Just with that, you must have thought about the legend. That alone brought the awareness of the dragon in the legend, and with likely just a gaze you probably experienced something very traumatic.”
Pausing slightly, he pondered a moment so she didn’t interrupt him as he kept talking, “Knowing more isn’t always better. If you knew a meteor was going to hit the settlement, what could you do about it?” Not waiting for her to answer the rhetorical question, “Now what can you do if you knew the world would be destroyed by that meteor? In a situation you don’t have the power to change anything, what does knowing do? You can say it is better to know so you have fewer regrets. But that is bullshit. If that is true, you need to stop living with so many regrets. If that is the case, the only one to blame is yourself.”
Saying that, the conversation came to an end. It was very rare for the old man to curse. Or at least outside the presence of Uncle Beast it was. Even though Uncle Beast was a bit rough for a dwarf, he was no hoodlum. Only when the two drank together, they became a pair of gangsters that spit out curses left and right, usually at each other. Moving outside, she let the old man work on the house. She left after looking at the chair. It would be safer if she didn’t help.
Sitting on the front porch, she wasn’t sure exactly what to do. Everything she had been working so hard for, and yet, to receiving it without her own merits felt anticlimactic. She couldn’t describe the feeling, between happiness and disappointment. Knowing full well, the test put forth to receive the old man’s last name was never about her specifically. From the beginning, she never lacked the qualification to share his last name.
What stopped the old man was that his last name was not a family name. Jessica had seen it on his face multiple times throughout the years. He didn’t seem to like the name, he had only told her his last name once when she was very young. By this point, she couldn’t remember it. The conversation it occurred in was one she only remembered the bits she found most important back then. He wasn’t picky about names to begin with. Furthermore, he never tried to get her to call him dad or anything of the like. What was more important to them was not such titles, instead, what they deemed the most important was the feelings the two shared were genuine.
To one reason or another, he had held off abandoning it for a new one. She had previously thought about just making her own family and going by that name. What stopped her multiple times was the care the old man had always showed her. For these reasons, Jessica held off, focusing on receiving the last name of the old man. Even while not liking the name, not once did he abandon it. There was a reason for it, she just wasn’t clear on what that was.
Now being offered everything she wanted because of Leo was somehow uncomfortable. Not knowing why she was under this misconception and added pressure, she applied herself. What mattered to the old man was her safety. With a bit of struggle, she rearranged everything in her head.
Leo was something she didn’t know was so important to her before. The idea of entering a contract to not abandon the other was not something she was against. Obviously, she was not against taking the old man’s last name. Since there was no qualification she didn’t have to take the name. Why did she need to throw dirt on a positive thing to make it a negative when it wasn’t one?
As her thoughts solidified into energy, there was no point thinking about it anymore. Working through her troubles, she had to figure out if Leo was of the same thought as her. Until that moment, thinking anymore would be pointless. As if signifying this, she heard laughter and whispers as a group of children moved towards her.
Leading the pack was Aderyn. Behind her were a number of other children that neither shunned nor engaged with her before. Still, like an unspoken rule, the children took after their parents unknowingly and simply showed the most basic etiquette to even acknowledge her existence. Thus, this situation caused her to wonder what they were doing. If not for the gazes she was receiving she thought they were here to see the damage.
As part of their culture, because everyone had the ability to control mana. There was almost never an elf that refused to become at least a Grade F being. For that reason it wasn’t strange the strange phenomenon that occurred caused pandemonium not just for the adults but even to the children. For them, it might have been worse, as the sudden disappearance of mana probably made not just a few think the settlement was under attack by a legendary dragon or a Grade S being. Only someone of that caliber had the ability to harness that much mana, at least, that was common knowledge before what happened not a week ago.
Ruthlessly, the children shoved Aderyn out in front. Looking sort of awkward at being the center of attention from both ends, she approached the last five feet between the two parties rather slowly and nervously. Once she made it to the halfway point, she stopped and kicked at the ground playfully as she gathered her courage. For the outgoing Aderyn that could ask for things so shamelessly in front of her mother, it was a new look for Jessica to see.
Seeing the struggling face, she tried to help the child that for one reason or another tried to draw close to her, “Aderyn, did you get the sweets I gave to your mother?”
Looking up, she smiled as she seemed to relax, “Yes! I was surprised when I saw all of them.” As she laughed, she caught a glance at the children behind her as she turned back around. This time with a lot more composure, she couldn’t help but ask with a quieter voice than her reply, “Is it true that the mana blast the other day came from you?”
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Finally, everything clicked. It even started to clear some of the fog around the old man. To test that theory, she answered to both Aderyn and the kids behind her, “Yes. Though I might have been responsible for it, it wasn’t entirely my doing.” Putting her hand behind her back she willed it out. Pulling her hand from behind her back was a shabby and highly damaged sword. “The thing that made that blast, believe it or not was, this magic sword.”
True to the culture, while the kids looked at the dagger with doubt. There was a few that looked at in awe. As for the few adults in the distance, they looked on without an ounce of wonder or awe. In reality, none of them believed it. Though they too wondered how she had done it. The doctor had already said that the one responsible for it was Jessica. He even divulged it was done by an extraordinary item in her possession. But that dagger was not special.
Aderyn unlike the other kids was less nervous than before. She was already halfway between the two groups, so it didn’t take much for her to move forward and touch the blade. The children began to whisper to each other. Like the adults, some of the children also had doubts showing on their face. The attention she was receiving wasn’t just from the kids. As the blast took place in the house. The house that was already in a corner of the village, it was no wonder that the blast took out the fence and dug a hole through it all.
The damage done was the missing half of their house. In place was a tarp, as repairs were being done. As for the outside, leading to the fence and beyond was a ditch in the ground. This ditch was about the arm span of an adult. Leading thirty feet in the direction of the forest. In terms of depth, it was only a few feet deep. Instead, impressively or not, the blast went on for around a hundred to hundred and fifty feet. Because of the damage to the ground, it was impossible to repair the wall until the dirt was replaced.
For that reason, it wasn’t that surprising there was a group of guards being stationed. It just so happened to be that time when shift was being changed and the ones getting off duty were leaving. Having heard what she told the children, one of the guards openly scoffed at her statement. It was a bit unbecoming of an elf. It wasn’t like Jessica was going to take it laying down. Unlike the elves, she was shameless. Calling out to the guard, he stopped, and the children and adults alike looked over.
Because of the uniqueness of the isolation of their house, it made it possible for the guards to walk near their house, returning from the hole. At the moment, the guard was no more than fifteen feet away from the porch. Pulling the dagger up, she did a basic wind up and threw the dagger. There was a large burst of mana showing the throw was serious. This caused the guard who had scoffed to look startled before he brought up his sword to his chest as he preformed a quick leap backwards.
Everything turned silent at that moment. Nobody had expected her to do such a thing. Aderyn had been the closest to Jessica. Once Jessica released a large influx of mana it caused her to take a step back in caution and there was a bit of fright on her face. Only once everything was done, her and the children burst out laughing, breaking the silence. Unlike the adults, the children were still normal. The adults on the other hand were perplexed. Everything she had done had been seen. The throw was serious and even infused mana, at that distance the guard had done what every single one of them would have done.
Only, he didn’t receive an attack. Frankly, the dagger was nowhere to be seen. Everyone, including most of the children, saw that at the end of the release it mysteriously disappeared. Many thought it was a type of spell engraved on the blade. She had indeed said it was a magic sword, but nobody believed her. Only now they saw that the blade was gone, and she never intended to attack the guard, instead the blade was recalled in some way.
For the children, it was embarrassing for the guard, only the guard didn’t care. For the adult elves, this was not a provocation but a proof of concept. Nobody believed the crude and damaged sword was magical, only seeing it could they finally understand it had some truth to her statement. Moving back inside, the incident was only impactful for the elves. For them, who had an abnormal stance to the strong. Through this, she was able to understand the old man might be more powerful than she imagined. She knew he was strong, just not exactly how strong. The old elves shared a look she had seen on a few of the elves when the thought of her being responsible for this incident, they were just not as strong or zealous as what the old men received.
Roughly a week later, Jessica found herself camping outside. She, like before, had a fire going with a great distance between her and the road. Unusual from before, feeling ever so lonely. Not even a year ago. Not that much had passed, and still she would have given a great number of things to rid herself of the presence she had become recently attached to. Now she whispered under her breath to the invisible existence that she could barely feel in her arm. Hoping with a great amount of energy to once again be able to converse with someone while seemingly alone.
Unbeknownst to her, there was a snapping of a twig behind her. She had no idea when anything had approached so close. The snap was not in the distance but only just a bit behind her. Having been distracted as she talked aimlessly to the seal, she was startled greatly. Whipping around so fast, she felt a strain in her neck like she had just experienced whiplash. At some unknown time the daggers at her waist had disappeared, in its place were two empty sheaths.
“See, I told you I saw a fire. Luck-ie!”
“Shut up. You’re too close. Shouldn’t we make ourselves known so we don’t cause a misunderstanding?”
“No way! What if there are bandits. I don’t want to share a fire with bandits, that is just bad karma.”
“Do you even know what karma is? And what makes you think you have good karma, or is that why you can’t afford more bad karma?”
“Of course! I am a gentleman, how can I have bad karma? Oh, I think we have been noticed… Hi!” Waving to the woman staring at them by the fire.
“You think? She has two daggers in her hand, I’m sure, she always sits around a fire at night like that.” Spitting out his piece with a large amount of sarcasm. He simply stared at the woman before him.
At the distance of around ten feet were two men. Even after being greeted, they didn’t stop arguing. Though it was a one-sided onslaught. The issue was, neither of the two were human. The obvious one had green skin and was wearing a suit. Unlike low level goblin’s there was nothing different outside his skin and taller physique that set him apart from a human. Even the usual red eyes were a yellow like tourmaline.
As for his companion, he, for a lack of better description, seemed homeless. His hair was dirty, messily scatter around him. Most of his face was covered. With a dark red set of glowing pupils, it was hard to even make out his eyes as they matched the color of his hair. With a dirty set of clothes, he almost seemed human. The glow let off by his eyes was from mana circulating through his body. She couldn’t feel it, meaning he was far higher level than her. His eyes alone showed a reptilian like slit that was often seen in many animals. It was likely he was from an animal tribe. Without showing any animal characteristics, he had to be a high ranking royal.