As I was standing outside the door to her room I tried to come up with something to say but didn’t want to make her wait so I knocked on the door.

* “Come in.” I heard her say

I opened the door and stepped in.

* “You wanted to see me?” I said as I closed the door behind me

* “Yes, it’s important and decides if you can stay here or not, but I guess Lupus already told you that right?” She said

* “Yes, he did, but what’s your name?” I asked

* “I’m Uxor, the wife of the chef of the land of elves.” She said as I took a seat in front of her

* “So, what decides if I can stay or not?” I asked

* “When you stepped in between me and Lexia, you said that I shouldn’t throw her into a meeting with humans immediately after she stopped being a slave, correct?” She asked

* “Yes, I did say that, and no matter how this conversation pans out I will still agree with my opinion.” I said

* “Well then, will you help Lexia overcome her fears while you're here?” She asked bluntly

* “What?”

* “Since you wanted her to take her time getting comfortable around humans, could you help her?” Uxe asked as if Lexia was her daughter

* “Can I ask a few questions first?”

* “Of course.”

* “Why is Lexia living here? And why are you so insistent on making Lexia become friends with humans?”

* “She lives here because she’s my daughter or at least she is my adoptive daughter, and I don’t necessarily want her to be friends with humans, I just want her to be friends with anyone.” Uxe said sounding a little desperate

* “Why can’t she be friends with other elves?”

* “Because she is a part of the royal family in name she is treated differently and gets everything she wants so she can’t make friends.”

* “But I, who is a human and not even from the same world as her, don't fall under these circumstances.”

* “That was why I wanted you to come here.”

* “But why are you so hard on her then?”

* “Earlier I just got angry with myself because I couldn’t take care of her. And I took it out on her.” She sounded like she was about to start crying

* “Fine, I’ll try my best. Actually I was already planning on making friends with her after seeing the way she dressed and styled her hair.” I said a little more relaxed knowing I could make her request come true

* “Really? Why?” She started to sound less sad and more suspicious

* “Don’t worry, I didn’t want to do anything bad to her, I just wanted to make her look happy again.” I said trying to make her calm down

* “Happy again?”

* “I haven’t seen how she naturally is but by the way she dresses and cleans her hair it seems to me as if she wants to make people not want her.” I said

* “Why would she want that!?” Uxor said starting to get frustrated and raising her voice

* “Because she used to be a slave!” I said loudly “If you were sold from owner to owner getting treated worse than they treat farm animals then wouldn’t you also want people to avoid you!” I was starting to get angry

* “Well.” She lowered her voice

* “She probably doesn’t trust anyone, not even you! She has never been treated well before and all of this is probably new to her!”

* “I’m sorry.” She said while her head was down and tears dripping onto the floor. “I… didn’t realise.”

* “Don’t apologize to me, apologize to the young girl who is crying on the other side of this door.” I moved toward the door and opened it

* “Lexia!?” Uxor said still sobbing

* “Loki, what did you do to Uxor!” Lexia tugged onto my shirt preparing to slap me

* “Lexia stop!” Uxor said right before Lexia hit my face

* “Why! He made you cry!”

* “That’s because he explained something to me I was to blind to realise.” Uxor said as she wiped away the tears from her face and moved toward me and Lexia

* “I think I’m going to leave.” i said as I tried to leave

* “No you don’t! What did you mean when you said you already planned on doing that, it seemed like you already had started to try!” Uxor said as she grabbed my collar from behind

* “Ohh, yeah.” I was getting a bit nervous. “Hey, Lexia, did you see that note I left for you?”

* “What note?” Lexia asked looking confused

* “This one.” Someone said from the door

* “Lupus, how did you find out about the note!?” I said in surprise

* “I told you I knew why you were late.” Lupus said as he walked toward Lexia

* “Is this the one you meant?” She asked as she picked it up

* “Can I look it over to make sure Lupus didn’t change anything?”

* “Sure, here.” Lexia said as she gave it to me her face a little flushed

* “Let’s see here. What!? Lupus! Get over here you rascal!” I said as I tried to catch him

* “Damn!” Lupus said as he bolted out of the room

* “Let me re-write the note.” I said as I tore the false note apart, and started to write the exact same thing as the first note on a second piece of paper. “Here is the real note I wrote.”

* “Okay, what does it say?” Uxor asked

* “Lexia, read it quietly first and then read it out loud if it’s necessary, okay?” I asked as I gave her a soft smile

* “Okay.” She said as she started to read the note, the further she got the more red her face got. “This is!”

* “What is it?” Uxor said getting a little worried

* “I don’t think it was anything too bad.” I said not knowing why they were freaking out

* “It says, (I might be wrong but, you don’t need to dress in dirty clothes and keep your hair dirty, your no longer a slave, you can be yourself, wear the clothes you yourself want to wear, and I know, that the people who freed you wouldn’t put you somewhere you would get hurt, and I bet that you would be the most beautiful girl if you cleaned your hair and put on clothes you like.)” Lexia read the note out loud and her face was now so red that you couldn’t even see her original original skin color anywhere

* “See it wasnt that bad, right?” I said still oblivious

* “It is… the nicest thing anyone has ever said about me.” Lexia said as she started to cry

* “Hey, don’t cry.” I tried cheer her up

* “I’m happy, you don’t need to cheer me up Loki.” She said as she smiled brightly

* “Well Lexia, do you want to follow the words of the note” Uxor asked

* “Loki, did you mean what you said in this note?” Lexia said looking at me with hope

* “Every word.” I said as I gave her a reassuring smile

* “Well then, Lexia, do you want to be friends with Loki?” Uxor asked

* “Well…” Lexia said as she got a little embarrassed

* “Ha ha!” I couldn’t contain my laughter

* “Hey! Why are you laughing at me!” Lexia as she got even more embarrassed at the same time she tried to look mad

* “Sorry, I just thought you were really cute while embarrassed!” I said still laughing

* “You’re not sorry! You're still laughing!” She said as she started punching me in the chest

* “Ouch!” I said as I felt a sharp pain in my chest

* “What’s wrong!?” Lexia asked looking worried

* “I don’t think his ribs have healed yet, Lexia.” Uxor said

* “I’m sorry.” Lexia said as she looked sad

* “It’s fine” I said as I tried to hold back my anguish at the pain in my chest

* “I’ll leave you two to it then.” Uxor said as she left the room

* “Where are you going?” I asked

* “I have some business with my husband.” She said as she left

* “You should rest for the day Loki.” Lupus said as he followed Uxor

* “Sure.” I said as I was left alone with Lexia

* “What is that dog of yours?” Lexia asked as we went to the living room to rest

* “He said that he’s an ordinary wolf but I don’t know.” I said as I laid down on the sofa to get some rest

* “What are you doing?” Lexia asked seeming shocked

* “Well I have three broken ribs so I am in a lot of pain.” I said as I tried to relax

* “I’m sorry.” Lexia said seeming sad

* “It’s not your fault I’m in pain.”

* “But I was punching your chest earlier and that must have hurt.”

* “Honestly I barely felt it, I only realised that it hurt because of it, you didn’t make it worse.”

* “Well, at least let me heal you!” She said determined to make up for something she didn’t do

* “Fine, since you won’t give up.” I said giving in to her

* “Alright then here I go.” She started to try and heal me

* “But.” I said interrupting her

* “But what?” She asked in surprise

* “First you need to go shower and change into clothes that aren't dirty, okay?” I said

* “But can’t I do that after?” She asked wanting to heal me immediately

* “I want to know what you really look like, not what you look like dirty.”

* “Okay.” She said getting embarrassed at what I said

* “Ha ha! Ouch!” I started laughing at how cute she was but got a sharp pain in my chest again

* “I told you to stop laughing” She said getting angry again

* “You're just too cute when you're embarrassed.”

* “I’m taking a bath.” Her face turned bright red and she bolted to the bathroom

* “Okay, I’ll be waiting here.” I said after her

Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road.

I waited in the living room for what felt like thirty minutes every minute more boring than the last, and just before falling asleep I heard the bathroom door open.

* “I’m done.” Lexia said as the bathroom door opened

* “Okay, can you come over here so I can look at you? I can’t really sit up.” I said

* “Sure, I’ll heal you too.” She said as she started to move towards the sofa

* “Thank yo-” When she got within my line of sight I was stunned by how beautiful she was

* “What’s wrong?” She asked

* “Nothing, it’s just, I knew you were gonna be beautiful but this… This is better than I had imagined.” I said as I looked at her

* “You can’t say things like that out of the blue!” She shouted at me as her face turned red again

* “And you're even cuter when you get embarrassed.”

* “Shut up!” She shouted as she pushed a pillow into my face

* “Hey!” I shouted as I tried to get the pillow of my face

* “Just be quiet and let me heal you.” She said as she put her hands on my chest

* “Fine.”

As the warmth of her magic flowed into me and her soft hands pressed on my chest I slowly started to drift off to sleep. As I was sleeping it felt as if all the worries I had since I entered this world washed away as if they never excited in the first place. I woke up to the smell of food, I opened my eyes and tried to sit up but felt something on my chest.

* “Lupus, get off of ME!” I shouted in shock as I saw that it wasn’t Lupus who was on me but Lexia who had seemingly fallen asleep while trying to heal me

* “You two seem to be getting along” Uxor said from the kitchen

* “Hey, Lexia, wake up.” I said as I lightly pushed her with my hand

* “Hmm, good morning.” Lexia said as she opened her eyes

* “More like good afternoon.” A male voice around my age said from the dinner table

* “Sōzokujin!” Lexia said as she rose to her feet

* “When will you start to treat us like family?” A kind sounded male voice said to the right of me as I stood up

* “Who are you?” I asked

* “I am Dryadalis Utsukushi, the lady in the kitchen is my wife Uxor Utsukushi, and the boy around your age in the kitchen is my son Sōzokujin.” He said

* “You're the elf chef!” I shouted in surprise

* “Yes, and I’d like to know what you and my daughter were doing.” As he talked his voice was calm but his presence was terrifying

* “She was just healing the wounds I got from my battle with goblins!” I said louder than I meant to

* “You got hurt fighting goblins! Ha ha ha ha!” Sōzokujin laughed

* “Shut up! Brother!” Lexia shouted

* “It seems Loki is helping you settle into our family.” Uxor said

* “Well if that’s the case then why not let him be.” Lupus said as he found a comfortable place to sit on my head

* “Fine, I’ll let it slide for now.” Dryadalis said

* “Everyone sit down at the table, dinner ready!” Uxor shouted

* “We’re coming.” Dryadalis said calmly as he stood up

As I stood up to go to the table I suddenly started to feel dizzy and grabbed the wall to make sure I didn’t fall, but before I could regain my balance I fell backwards.