“If that’s how this is, then ok. I will see what to do with my sister”- Mitsude looked down at the table, her gaze seemed empty
Ten minutes past Petra and Akari arrive, in time with our food
“We are back”- Petra had the same look at Mitsude
“Are you ok miss?”- Akari poked Petra with her left
“Yes, just tired”
Akari sat down in the middle again, it’s a good feeling somehow
“Here you go”- The cat-person waiter brought us our orders
“Thank you. It looks delicious”
Akari stared a bit at her wrapped pancake for a while before grabbing it. The first bite she took her face lightened into a smile, she was enjoying every bite her eyes closed, seeing her smile like this gave me a little hope for this situation
“Do you want more?”- After seeing how much she enjoys it, I want to treat her to another one. It may be the first time she ate food like this in years
“Yes, please. Thank you, Daisuke”
“So, Senri, for how long did you 2 take care of Akari?”
“Almost 3 weeks now”
“That’s not a long time. So why did you buy Akari?”- Petra turned her head to the left, staring at Senri
“Hmm, Daisuke bought her, we just take care of her together”
“Together? You 3 sound and look like a married couple with a kid”- Senri’s face turned red
“Really?”- Senri hid her face
“Anyway, Daisuke, I would like a chat with you as well”
“Petra, just let them enjoy their time now, ok? I trust Senri and her judgments”- Mitsude rose from her chair, resuming her duties as a waiter
“Fine, come to the guild, there is a lot we need to talk about”
“Anything else?”
“Yes, we would like to order the wrapped pancake again”
“Well, you didn’t notice the waiters because you are so much in your head, he was there the entire time, don’t be too surprised kid. This happens to you all the time. Choose your words carefully with Petra”
“Great Sage, did you have a situation like this?”
“Yes, in my world I had to take care of children as well, both monster and human children”
“Monster and human?”
“Yes, there was a war between monsters and humans, both sides had to suffer.”
“What happened to most kids there, if the humans had them?”
“Most of them will die before they become adults”
“How did you solve in your world, if it ever was?”
“I already told you. I killed a few billion humans and the problem of the war between people and monsters stopped”
“So, with Petra?”
“Don’t worry, I will do the talking, or if you want, I can let you talk”
“Thanks, Great Sage”
“Are you ok Daisuke?”- Akari was poking my left check
“Yes, sorry about that”
“Daisuke, you can go talk to Petra, me and Akari will go back home”
“Fine, I will see you there!”- It’s time. Opening the door to the guild, seeing the guild master and the Elven maid again, made my body tremble for some reason.
“Take a seat”- Petra was sitting in the left corner of the room
“Ok, what did you want to talk about?”
“Don’t play dumb, you know exactly what I want to talk about”- Petra smashed her fist into the table
“Akari?”
“Yes. Look, tell me the entire story”
“First, we received the mission from the king, we meet up with him in the town square, I saw Akari in a cage and bought her”
“I know that already”
“Well, then I brought her home, Senri cleaned Akari and gave her new clothes to wear. For the last 2 weeks we thought her self-defense and how to craft potions, she can only use fire magic as of now, there are many things left to teach her, but we do our best”
“You are lying”
“What do you mean?”
“In which way are you helping her or the village, look, when I first saw you I had a bit of hope for you. And I thought you might be a little different.”- Petra reached with her hand across the table, grabbing me by the shirt collar
Unauthorized content usage: if you discover this narrative on Amazon, report the violation.
“Great Sage?”
“Yeah, let me take over, this turned bad”
“Look, why don’t you come to see how we help the village, does this sound fair to you? You can come at any time”
“Fine. If there is no visible help or hear a complaint from them, I will turn you into a punching bag”- Petra dropped me, exiting the guild, my mind is on Akari again. Well, I didn’t tell Petra the entire plan, but it should work. Well now a ball for Akari, maybe Ikeda has one
Ikeda’s shop:
“Hello”
“Ohh, Daisuke, is that you? You didn’t stop by in a long time to buy anything”- Ikeda turned his back on me, grabbing some shields and swords
“Yes, I am wondering, would you have a bigger rubber ball? Like the one, a kid will play with? Something that can resist magic?”
“Yes, here, it will be 3 silver. Anything else?”
“I suggest you get a shield as well Daisuke”
“Great Sage, why would I need a shield?”
“It’s the weapon of your class, and the second point is that Akari will need a target dummy that is alive while she will train with Noni and Sakamoto.”
“Yeah, I would like a light but sturdy shield”
“Ok, total that would be one gold”
“Here”- I spent half of my earned money in just 2 weeks, I only have half of what I had, 15 in total
“Well, your armor is lacking”
“I know, but I need light armor and money is a little thin on my side, there are some expenses that are too hard to pay, and monster slaying time is limited, plus not as many monsters spawn, it’s strange”
“Now that you said it, in summer most of the monsters move in the dark forest, just go there”
“Ok, thanks, I will be back when I can!”- I have the ball and the shield, let’s go
“Yeah, to clarify, monsters here follow seasonal patterns like animals. In spring monsters roam the plains, in summer monsters hide in the forests, in fall stronger monsters appear when it gets dark some monsters stop spawning completely, in winter there are a lot of strong monsters that spawn, ice golems, ice giants, ice behemoths and ice spirits will rarely appear”
“Ice spirits?”
“Yes, just like normal spirits, they can inhabit a human body and give them magical powers, like casting ice spells without mana, etc.”
The next day:
“ So how should we teach her about wind magic? It’s kinda confusing for a kid to learn it”
“I have the perfect way to make it happen, this ball. We can teach her wind magic this way, it will be good, I think”
“That’s a great idea Daisuke, the hardest part will be to get her to channel her magic energy”
“Akari, come here!”- Akari was playing around in the grass of the plains
“Yes, what happened?”
“Look, now you need to master wind magic as well, you have the fundamentals set already, a little more practice will do”
“How am I going to do that?”- Akari poked at the ball
“Well, we will play a game, you just use wind magic to push the ball around
“Follow my magic Akari”- Senri was the first to try and float the ball in the air
Akari spent 2 hours trying to live the ball with no success, in the end she could make it float
“You did it! Good work”- Senri leaned to pat Akari’s head
“Now what?”
“Well, try to move it around, increasing its speed”
The ball floated for a bit from left and right, but it fell down. Akari seems about to collapse.
“Are you ok, Akari?”
“She isn’t, she is using a lot more magical energy than normal for this you better catch her before she falls”
“No, it’s enough for today Akari”- Grabbing Akari in my arms her breathing got heavy and started falling asleep
“What happened really?”
“She used all of her magical energy. She needs rest”- Senri’s face looked perplexed
“How, it shouldn’t take a lot of energy out of her”
“No, Great Sage told me she was using more energy than usual”
“She was using 20 time more energy Daisuke”
“He told me Akari was using 20 times the normal amount”
“What?”- Senri’s face dropped
“Yes, I don’t know how this happened, but we shouldn’t exhaust her like this”
“Yes, let’s bring her home”, but
The heroes' mansion:
“So this is the 3rd week?”- I was sitting on the floor in Senri’s room, she was sitting on her bed watching over Akari, her eyes darting back and forth at every light whimper she gave off
“Yes, Noni, Sakamoto and Okura should be getting some stuff done, we have 5 more weeks before the mission is over right?”
“Yes, well more than 5 weeks, but we will have to report to king Luxor, I don’t know if my brother reported yet, but we need to make a report”
“I will take care of it. Great Sage can help with this”
“Maybe you are right, take care Daisuke”
“Auto-pilot”
“So you want to give a fake report to the king, yes, I can manage that”
The law house
“Your friend is also here”- Okura was already there, reporting to the king
“What are you doing here?”
“Well, I came to report as well”
“Kid, Okura said they were trying to get info about Emiko in the village”
“Yes, sir, we needed to get info about Emiko from the locals. You didn’t give us any leads, so we had to find some, her whereabouts are speculative, as far west of east, two parts of the village are divided between these 2 directions”
“Why don’t you check the 2 directions?”- King Luxor’s voice got raspy
“We can’t, it might be a cleaver trap from Emiko, from my info she is very intelligent and good at setting traps, she might even have 10 directions just to make us go in a circle while she attacks”
“You have a good point here, she is the only intelligent demi-human that I know of”- King Luxor usual demeanor is to put others down to lift himself up. It’s a good thing he didn’t catch onto us realizing the trap
“Are you sure he didn’t catch on?”
“I am positive, Great Sage”
“Well, so if you find Emiko are you willing to go after her?”- King Luxor was examining his rings and gold, holding them in his hand and polishing the
“For sure, but we need to take precautions, these missions are supposed to be highly secretive, so we need to maintain, our cover, she will be cleaver enough to blow our cover, she will figure it out eventually so until we get more info or isolate her we can’t do anything, you realize the danger you are putting the nations honor a reputation at risk. It will be the most humiliating blow ever dealt”
“Ok, but one more thing that needs clarification. Some of my guards had seen you teaching magic to your merchandise, can you explain it?”
“Sorry sir, I can’t understand your question, repeat”
“The slave you bought, why were you and your girlfriend teaching her magic?”
“Sir, we needed to win the village over, this is a good way to earn their respect and trust until they let us onto Emiko’s whereabouts, we need to uphold our part of the bargain. We were also watched by the demi-humans guard to be convinced that we teach her magic and nothing else”
“Yes, I see you are a smart kid, look keep this up, and we should get the info in no time. Your friend Okura here isn’t good at explaining things, so thanks for clarification. You 2 are free to go. I am happy to hear that our mission is going well”