“My family, huh…?”

Adrian responded with those words, surprising Marilyn a little bit with his mildly sombre tone. His smile now presented itself as more of a saddened one, but…

“Is something wrong…?” Marilyn attempted to ask him.

Marilyn raised an eyebrow the moment his tone changed. She was rather concerned here, quite genuinely one might add. She wouldn't want something bad to have happened to him here too.

“It's nothing to worry about, really.” He said, “No one died, of course. But it's just, I’m not blood related to them, you know? I'm not a full-on expert about them."

Well, at least that concern was put down. But, she would then try to say his status, “You're…”

“Adopted, yes.”

Adrian turned his head towards his right, staring at the window. They're on the second floor of the library, so they were quite high up, but not enough to not let them know what's going on below. Many students are conversing and enjoying their lives, or were heading for their classes. It was very much like a town from up here.

He continued, but not before chuckling, “I should probably stop being sombre about my status. Gives off the wrong vibe.” He said, turning his attention to Marilyn again with a smile, “They're a prestigious family, as you might've known.”

“I do, yeah.” She replied.

He nodded, “A family of Hunters that have served the kingdom, and the world, with well-known deeds for generations. You must've heard tales about them too.”

She had heard of those tales, and her father was a Hunter too, now semi-retired. They're basically a specific subgroup of this world’s equivalent of adventurers, she thought, focusing on the vanquishing of monsters and phantoms instead of merely exploration and discovering things.

He placed one hand upon the table, the other seemingly used to count something, “The first of the bloodline helped the first king Valerius Lenore greatly during the Age of Heroes thousands of years ago. A few centuries ago another helped in ending the Great War. And the one before our generation freed the region of Kharnam and its surrounding areas from permanent terror.”

He put his other hand down to the table now, “My father was the one that freed Kharnam, your home region, twenty five years ago. He was just a few years older than the both of us during that time. He was self-taught too, no academy training and all, just passed down family knowledge.”

“Woah…” Indeed, she was quite in awe.

“I’m the eldest child of the family, and I also have one really cute gothic little sister that decided to have herself homeschooled, learning about everything she can by herself. She's younger than you, that's for sure, so don't let her attitude fool you.”

Marilyn thought of that notion for a bit, it could probably be a result of puberty? If not, something else entirely then, probably more of a phase. “I assume he was married when she was born?”

He nodded with a smile, “He was and still is. His wife is a rabbit-folk demi-human, both met each other during a mission together before they adopted me. And despite how dense and heavily workaholic my father was, the both of them managed to fall in love.”

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She smiled, that's indeed nice. A bit worrisome that his father does have that kind of bad habit, but still it at least ended well for them.

“Though ever since a decade ago, he decided to retire. I don't know the exact details as to why, but he’s not a Hunter anymore, more of a behind the scenes person now.” He said, “From what I can see, the only reason he even continued the work was due to guilt, so he probably moved on. He has fully focused on training me to take his place since then.”

“Hmmm, I see.” So it's basically just like her father, but probably for an entirely different reason, she thought. For her father at least, he left the job for the sake of being there for his family.

“Soo…that's basically the summary of my family's history, why did you ask that, specifically?”

“I was just curious about you and your surname.” She said, “It was nothing more than that, but why were you a bit sad about it a few moments ago?”

“Hmm, that's certainly an interesting question.” He responded, he even chuckled, “It's more of a me thing than it is a you thing though. But I feel like we can relate to this, if you want to hear it.”

She nodded with firm affirmation, “I want to, so please do explain.”

He blinked a couple of times from how immediate she was, and sighed. “Well then, there's no hiding it.” He said, “Simply enough, due to my adopted status I felt like I don't necessarily fit with my family.”

“...why?”

“Felt unworthy of them and all, especially due to how my father took me in when I was very young.” He said this while he stretched his arms.

He then leaned back against his seat, his hands resting upon the back of his head, staring into the ceiling.

“I guess…I’d say that's a natural thing to think about for adopted children. And the usual answer to that kind of issue would probably be ‘We adopted you because we want to do something for you’, or something.” He said, continuing from before. “But…”

“It's not just that, huh?”

“Yep.” He leaned forward again, “I felt more unworthy in potentially being the scion of my family, since I am not even blood related to them. I am not sure if I can even do it despite that.” He said, “I know feudalism died several centuries ago and all so I don't have to worry about titles, but the thought is still there. I just don't feel like I can live up to their legacy.”

“Right…”

His words certainly hit her particularly well there. He did not lie, they could definitely relate just with this alone. Although, what should she do to repay him here?

He cracked his neck, “That's basically it, for now. I feel like the more emotional stuff doesn't really need to be explored since we're busy with school work.”

“Y-yeah, we should definitely continue them.” She responded.

The two of them have agreed, and quietly they resumed their work upon their own desktops across from each other. For a good bit of time they quietly did this, and her five thousand word essay had progressed to about a quarter of the way there in word count.

However, as she typed the letters into the holographic display before her, unrelated thoughts to said work began to speak in her mind. It was the same thoughts from earlier, about Adrian, as well as some more that's related to the conversation they recently had with each other.

She really empathised with him, as it would seem both of their dreams and wishes were practically the same. She wanted to become stronger for the sake of being worthy for the people she loves, to be happy for herself, as well as to thank the world by helping the good people in it.

For Adrian, from what she could guess, it was something along the lines of that. Though it would most likely be more aligned towards wanting to become someone worthy of his family's name.

He didn't even have an exact advantage either despite his connection to the family, due to him not being blood-related, just a Hunt in name only.

Therefore, she would say these words to him, the words that she had thought of specifically for the both of them.

She stopped her work for a short moment and stood up from her seat, catching the attention of the young man in front of her.

“M-marilyn? What are you doing?”

She walked out of her seat, and stood at the end of his. And as she stood before him, flabbergasting and surprising him with her action—

She extended her hand, as a way to promise him that, “You’re not alone, we’re not alone. Both of us have a similar wish and goal in life.” A smile curled up upon her face, “So from now on, let's work together. Would that be alright with you?”

His mouth was still agape from her declaration towards him. But after a few moments, he laughed. It was not out of ridicule, but from how sincere she was.

“Yeah, that's fine by me. Let us work together, then.”

Adrian would return the gesture in kind, their hastily thought out promise to each other now made official, all from a simple shake of their hands.